


There's Something Out There

by Rava



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Sequel Trilogy, Warframe
Genre: Adult tenno, Aged-Up Character(s), Canon-Typical Violence, Cultural Taboos, F/F, F/M, Face concealment taboos, Family of Choice, Finn & Rey platonic bromance, Force Training, Force Visions, Grey Jedi, Hutts are their own warning, Jedi doing Jedi stuff, Jedi have the power of the void, M/M, Maybe others - Freeform, Mind Meld, No ben hate though, Past Reylo, Physical contact taboo, Rey could do better, Rey needs a real boyfriend, Significant liberties with warframe lore, Sith madness, Soul Bond, Telepathic Bond, Tenno are force users, Tenno doing tenno stuff, Valkyr is her own warning, i love him but, just to make them fit in the same universe though, not a fixit, significant liberties with star wars lore
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-01-07
Updated: 2020-03-09
Packaged: 2021-02-27 05:33:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 6
Words: 37,419
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22161871
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rava/pseuds/Rava
Summary: Post-TROS Rey and Finn go on a new adventure to recover what they can of the Jedi of the past.  At the edge of known space, they make an amazing discovery and Rey finds more kindred spirits to add to her family.Star Wars/Warframe crossover.  This story does not require any prior knowledge of Warframe, but you may be a bit lost if you haven't seen The Rise of Skywalker and you'll definitely be spoiled.
Relationships: Poe Dameron/Finn, Rey/Original Male Character(s)
Comments: 20
Kudos: 46





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I basically wrote this story because I love Ben Solo but he had a lot of problems and Rey needs to get her head on straight before she can go training a future generation of Jedi. 
> 
> I'd also been thinking about a Star Wars/Warframe crossover for a while and this particular idea was just the inspiration that got me to actually write it. Space ninjas and space wizards working together seemed like a fun idea.
> 
> This story takes some liberties with the lore of both Star Wars and Warframe, although for the most part the warframe stuff is just speculation to fill in gaps that we still don't know about and headcannons about tenno society. The Tenno in this story are older than they are in the game, so basically about the same physical age as Rey although obviously mentally the are quite a bit older. They've lived through and past the events currently in the story of the game so there are things that have happened to them that haven't happened in the game. 
> 
> I'm also working under the idea that the tenno concept of void powers is actually just a very unique way of using the Force, and that the Void and the Force are basically the same thing.

Awareness returned gradually, over an unknowable amount of time. Deep, void-stained visions that slowly gave way to more human dreams, that slowly bled into a vague sense of consciousness. When the time came that he finally realized he was awake again, he was hanging in empty space, surrounded by stars. 

_So,_ he thought to himself, _is this a vision of the past? Or something happening in the present?_

**_You’ll see_ ** a dark voice answered his thoughts. His void-shadow was awake as well. _Great._

He felt the presence of the Other fade with an echo of laughter. Mischievous ghost or not, his shadow never showed him things without a good reason. He took in his surroundings.

He had thought he was in empty space, but in fact he was suspended several thousand kilometers above a planet. He could not remember the name of the planet they had gone to sleep on. It must be similar to Earth at least, or sleep would have been dangerous.  
  
As he drifted he became aware of something else: a ship was approaching. He could not distinguish what beings might have created it, but he could sense that there was something...portentous about it. This was what the shadow wanted him to see.

As the world faded into darkness once more, he considered the implications of his vision.

Someone was coming. Someone could find them. Someone could disturb their rest.

Given these facts, the situation became simple. Someone would have to awaken from the long dream and make sure that did not happen. And he would be that someone. 

\------

She was certain that they would find something here, but she wasn’t at all sure whether that was a good thing or not.

Rey and Finn had been traveling for the last 4 months through the deep outer rim in the Millenium Falcon, looking for relics or remnants of the ancient Jedi that had been too far flung for the empire to find and destroy. They didn’t have much to go on: a handful of old records that they’d managed to acquire from Maz Kanata and a historian who had contacted them about a month after Exogal with a data archive that he’d managed to find somewhere in one of the old libraries on Coruscant. After analyzing the data, they’d made a list of potential sites of interest, and Rey and Finn had both tried to gain insight from the Force about which might be worth visiting.

In the end there were 3 within the inner rim, and 6 more beyond, in the outer rim. And then there was one more, which was little more than a hyperspace coordinate just beyond the edge of known space, in the unknown regions. 

“We don’t have to go if you don’t want to, Finn. It will take us another two weeks to get there and I know you miss Poe,” she hadn’t really wanted to turn back, she was actually enjoying this trip more than she had expected to. But unlike her, Finn had reasons to want to return to the inner rim.

She knew, intellectually, that she also had reasons, that Finn’s friends were also her friends. She was being unfair, but sometimes it was hard to stay positive. She was better than she had been 8 or even 6 months ago, but she knew that she wasn't healed yet. Maybe she never would be completely.

But Finn shook his head. “No. I feel it too...there’s something important about this one. Besides, we checked all the others and found almost nothing. It would be dumb to turn back now.”

They really hadn’t found much of anything. A few holocrons from the late days of the old republic, some small settlements that might have been home to a small group of Jedi. But nothing that wasn’t already somewhere in her books. Nothing that would justify traveling all this way to find.

Besides it was just such a mystery. 

Either way, they were here now, in low orbit around a cloudy blue and pale green planet. As soon as they had come out of hyperspace they had both felt it: a subtle but deep and powerful presence. If she hadn’t been looking for it, Rey didn’t think she would have noticed it, but once she did, it was impossible not to feel, like the vibrations in the hull of a star cruiser or sand being blown by the wind. 

They’d brought BB-8 of course, Poe wouldn’t have let them go without bringing the small droid “to keep an eye on them” and a new droid named EVX-4 that Rey had commissioned from Rose and some of the other engineers. She loved C-3PO but he was just not designed for field work or dangerous missions. 

“Evix, can you have the Falcon scan the planet, see if it’s safe for us down there?” Finn asked.

“Of course sir.” the droid replied. After a moment it indicated that it seemed safe: it was a little cool and the air was a little thin, but not dangerous.

There were no signs of habitation as they descended down towards the surface. The continent they were passing over was mostly flat grasslands, occasionally dotted with low rocky hills. It was probably one of the least interesting looking planets Rey had been to since she left Jakku.   
  
“Sir, I’m reading a very low level power source about...15 kilometers to the northwest," EVX-4 stated. "I’ve placed a marker on your scope. Recommend manual landing.”

Finn nodded and took the controls. In the copilot seat, Rey closed her eyes and reached out with the Force.

Yes, they were definitely heading towards the source of the presence she’d sensed from orbit, but…

“Finn,” she said, “tell me what you can sense with the force.” 

Finn raised one eyebrow doubtfully, but closed his eyes for a moment anyway. “....I do sense something. But...it feels like...it’s sort of muffled somehow” He opened his eyes again and frowned in thought, “could it be underground?”

Rey nodded. Finn's impression matched her own. “Maybe this power source is the top of some sort of underground structure?” 

“I sure hope so. If it’s buried under miles and miles of rock, there’s no way we can dig it up with just the equipment we have here on the Falcon” and there was no way they were going to be able to justify sending an excavation mission all the way out here if there wasn’t anything on the surface.

\-----

The power sourced turned out to be a large flat structure in the midst of a low range of hills: not quite tall enough to be proper mountains but rocky enough to be impossible to land on. The design was nothing Rey recognized (for what that was worth) but she could tell that it was beautiful: it was white and gold and covered in organic and geometric designs. Even if its design wasn't familiar its function was obvious: it was a platform for landing a small to medium sized ship. 

Finn put the ship down and after a final scan of the atmosphere by EVX-4, they were ready to head out.

\-----

As they descended the ramp of the Falcon, Rey kept her senses in the force alert. Other than a vague feeling of apprehension, however, she didn't sense anything new. The subtle power still pulsed below them, apparently unaffected by their arrival. There were a few small creatures that scampered out of view into crevices in the rocks as they walked past, but she couldn't sense any other life forms.

After searching the area around the landing pad they found a path leading away into the hills paved with the same strange white stone and gold organic filigree. It lead them down into a narrow trench that seemed to have been cut out of the rocks by machinery, but erosion and weathering had broken down what must have been smooth rock walls at some point in time. At the end of the trench, there was a design in gold metal on a flat rock wall, a short, squat stone pillar similarly decorated…and nothing else.

BB-8 turned his dome back and forth between Rey and Finn and gave a confused little warble.

“Evix,” Finn said, speaking into the comm. “Is the power source you found...directly in front of us right now?”

“I’m afraid so, Sir. Whatever it is, it’s inside that hill.”

Rey frowned at the door and scratched her chin in thought. Some of the places they’d visited had trapped doors or special trick locks to keep anyone who wasn’t a force user out. She ran a hand over the door examining it. There was one line of short, looped curves that ran down the center of the door, and she couldn’t help but think they looked like some sort of writing. 

“Evix” she said “Do you have visual? Take a look at this” She held her pad up so EVX-4 could scan the writing. 

“It appears to be some sort of inscription, Mistress. Let me see if I can get a translation for you”

Finn meanwhile examined the small stone pillar next to the wall. “It’s almost like some kind of control panel, if control panels were designed by someone from Canto Bight.” He looked around and seemed to shrink into himself a little, “I dunno Rey...the longer we stay here the creepier this place seems. I’m starting to get a bad feeling about all of this.”

Rey had to admit that he had a point. The sun was setting and stars were appearing in the sky, and the wind had started blowing over the rocks around them, making unnerving ghostly sounds. “We just have to figure out the trick, Finn. This looks too much like a door for there to be no way to open it.”

The comm beeped again and Rey thumbed it on to see what EVX-4 might have found.

“I’m sorry to tell you, Mistress, that there is no record of this language in any database that I have access too. The closest I could find was an incredibly old inscription from a slab of stone that was discovered drifting in an asteroid belt, but that inscription also remains untranslated. The rock it was written on was estimated to be more than 10 thousand years old. 

Rey and Finn both looked at each other. 

“Ten thousand years?” Finn repeated, “are you saying this thing could have been here since before the old republic even existed?”  
  
“That’s from before the ancient Sith empire even!” Rey said, looking at the door with new appreciation. 

There was absolutely no way she was going to leave this planet without finding a way inside.

“I’m sure there is way to open it,” Finn said, running a hand over the mysterious inscription, “but it could be something we just can’t do. What if it’s a genetic lock and you have to be from the same people who built it?” 

“There is a force presence here, Finn. Maybe that’s the key?” Rey backed up a few meters from the door and lifted her hand. “Step back, I’m going to try something.”

Finn hastily got out of the way. Rey focused on the inscription on the door, and reached out with the force. Then she curled her hand into a fist, and _pushed._

A few stones dislodged from the ledge above and clattered to the ground, but otherwise nothing happened. 

Finn frowned, looking between the door and the pillar next to it. “Maybe we have the right key but the wrong lock. Here Evix, have a look at the symbols on this post.” he held out his pad and scanned the gold decorations.

“There does appear to be more writing in the same language as the inscription on the door, Sir.” the droid replied after a moment “Although...hm. The symbol in the middle does look a bit like a symbol that appears in some very old Jedi texts. The database indicates it is a glyph associated with “lightning.”

Finn looked sharply at Rey and she frowned, looking away. Of course this would have to happen. Even out here, in actual literal unknown space, something would find a way to remind her. 

“Rey,” Finn started, and she hated hearing that tone in his voice, “we can just go. Look, whatever is down there, if this is how you get in…maybe it’s something better left alone.” He didn't really think that, he was just trying to give her a way out if she needed it. She appreciated Finn's friendship, especially now that she knew he was also force-sensitive, but this overly attentive side of him drove her crazy sometimes. 

“No.” she said, squaring her shoulders. She wouldn’t let it control her. It didn’t matter where the power came from, she would be it’s master. “I won’t give up.”

No need to push it, though. She stepped up to the pillar and rested her hand on top of it. Closing her eyes, she tried to recapture the same feeling of energy. _But only a tiny bit,_ she thought, focusing hard on creating just a small spark: only enough to activate the door but not enough to do anything else.

She strained for a long moment, and just when she thought that she wasn’t going to be able to do it there was an audible pop, a flash of light, and suddenly small blue lights sprang to life across the pillar and the door.

Slowly, the stone wall slid out of the way. 

The two Jedi looked at each other and nodded. There was no turning back now.

\---------

Beyond the door there was a round room that contained an array of mechanical equipment of no clear purpose, arranged roughly in a semi-circle around a large round opening in the floor that seemed to be a shaft leading down into the planet. EVX-4 had brought a portable scanner down from the ship, but he could only determine that most of the equipment was powered down to absolute minimal energy. There was an abundance of strange, faintly pulsing cables leading down into the floor, which did not register on the scanner at all. However, Rey could easily feel the power they pulsed with through the force. The feeling they gave her was not exactly a good one.

“It’s not the dark side,” she said, tapping one of the strands and discovering that it had a hard, glassy texture. “I suppose it doesn’t really feel like anything. They aren’t alive, but they aren’t quite dead either.” If she was being honest, she found this all fascinating. She supposed there was a part of her that still relished finding lost and disused equipment and scavenging it. 

“Have you ever heard of using something force sensitive to power a machine? It sounds pretty crazy.” Finn said, walking over to the center of the room and looking down into the hole. There were small platforms spaced regularly every 30 meters or so down the sides of the shaft, but no sign of an elevator or ladder of any kind. 

Rey joined him, squatting down to look down the shaft. “I haven’t. But that doesn’t mean anything.” She couldn’t see the bottom, it was lost in darkness and fog. “There’s so much of the Jedi that has been lost, who knows what the ancients could do?”

Standing back up, she took a few steps back from the edge, and sat down cross-legged on the floor. Finn sat down next to her. “So are we going down there?”  
  
“I think it’s the only way to go, but I want to try something first. Here, give me your hand,” she said, holding hers out to him. Finn took it. They had tried this a few times before based on a theory Rey had that two force users working together could sometimes do more than just one. Originally, she had planned to test it with more than just two...but now it seemed like that chance was a long way in the future. 

She put such thoughts out of her head and cleared her mind, reaching out first to Finn, forming a link between his presence in the force and hers. She could feel that he was apprehensive, but as he sensed her emotions as well, he seemed to catch some of her conviction. They fell into a comfortable trance together. 

Next, they reached out to the world around them. The strange machines were all around, but their force sense was just a weak echo, noted but easily passed over. The power they had sensed from space was directly below them now, and somehow less muffled. Rey knew, although she did not know how she knew, that opening the door had also opened something that was helping to hide it.

But...it wasn’t exactly an it. As the force signature came into clearer focus, her amazement broke her concentration and she lost both her sense of it and her connection to Finn.

She blinked back to her physical body and stared at Finn. His shocked expression was probably a mirror of her own.

“Not one force signature…” she said, “But a whole multitude!”

“I couldn’t count but there must be at least a hundred down there!” Finn said, looking down into the opening again. “They’re so quiet...they must be in some kind of stasis.”

They both took a moment to process this new information. “How could this be possible, though? A whole city of people who have been sleeping for ten thousand years?” Rey shook her head “Maybe it’s some kind of illusion.”

Finn shrugged. “Well, there’s only one way to find out.”

Rey nodded and stepped up to the edge of the shaft, judging the distance to the nearest platform. It would be a stretch but…she gathered the force around her and jumped down. Her feel landed solidly, and she looked up at Finn. “Look Finn! A great opportunity to practice your force-jumping skills!”

“Great.” he replied, although he didn’t sound very excited.

It took them nearly an hour to get to the bottom of the shaft. By the time they were most of the way down the multitude of force signatures had become unmistakable. Rey couldn’t be sure how many people were down here but it was a lot more than a hundred. Were they _all_ force users? Their signatures were a quiet, dreamy hum: Finn’s guess that they were in some kind of stasis or hibernation seemed more and more likely. Oddly, she did not get any sense of the dark or light side from them. Perhaps they themselves weren’t force users, but were being kept alive by some force-fueled machine similar to the devices at the entrance. This entire situation was too strange.

When they finally reached the bottom the air was cooler, and there was a thick, heavy silence that seemed to crush in on them from all sides. Before them, there was a hall more grand than anything Rey had ever seen. The white stone from the landing pad covered the walls and the floor was solid gold. Ornate filigree decorated every surface, and here and there were more inscriptions in the strange, flowing script. At the end of the hall was an archway at least 50 meters high with more gold filigree flowing up along its interior. Rey and Finn walked through silently: Rey was sure they could both feel the force gathering around them. Something significant was about to happen, but weather for good or ill was still uncertain, in flux. Rey moved her lightsaber staff into her hand, and Finn unclipped the strap on his holster.

Beyond the hall was a smaller room with less decoration. In the center was a large pool of water, with more of the strange not-quite-alive glowing strands hanging down from a fixture in the ceiling. Sitting in the pool, submerged part way, were four identical objects. Like everything here they were white and gold, arranged like the petals of a flower. Rey stopped short as she sensed them through the force: these were not just mechanical devices. She could sense that three of the pods contained beings who were unquestionably alive, but they were in some kind of deep hibernation. Their theory, however insane it seemed, was correct.

She slowly approached and ran her hand along the side of one of them: its surface felt warm, almost alive. As she moved to the center of the formation, she noticed that the fourth pod seemed to be empty: there was no sense of a living creature inside of it. Rey stepped forward to examine it.

She felt the warning in the force seconds before Finn cried out in alarm, and Rey had just a split second to throw herself out of the way as a small, sharp knife skimmed past her ear and embedded itself in a pillar. 

\---------

It had taken more time than he thought it would to truly awaken, but once his mind was clear he found everything was as they had left it. After choosing a frame and moving himself from his pod in the Reservoir to his vessel, he had considered awakening the other three, but then he sensed the presence of the intruders inside the shaft. The others would be weak and disoriented, not understanding why they were being awakened. They’d be safer if they stayed sleeping inside their pods for now: there was no reason the intruders would suspect what they contained. If he was lucky, they would just be treasure hunters looking for things small enough to carry off and would dismiss this entire room as some kind of elaborate fountain. 

So he leapt up to a ledge near the ceiling, adjusted his coloration to match the walls, and waited.

He had to admit that they did not look particularly threatening. A young man and woman, with a small and relatively harmless looking proxy companion of some sort. However, there was a certain something about them...they weren’t Tenno, but there was still a faint sense of affinity, especially from the woman. Could they also be survivors of extended exposure? They had managed to open the door and get down here somehow. 

He grew more concerned as the woman stepped forward and touched his sister’s pod. He reached down into the Void inside of himself and channeled it through his frame, veiling it with void energy and allowing it to vanish from any visual or auditory sensor. He drew a throwing knife and leapt down from the ledge in complete silence, landing behind the man, who had hung back. He had some manner of rifle at his waist but did not seem to have any other weapons or armor. The woman was moving towards the center of the cluster now and he couldn’t stand for this...indecent intrusion any more. 

One of his daggers embedded itself in the wall as the woman leapt out of its way with an admittedly impressive agility. Had he felt a flash of void energy?

He channeled more of his power into the frame and focused on the woman. He didn’t want to kill normal humans if he could help it, especially if they were also survivors of void exposure, but they could not be here. Reaching out through the void, he bent the space between them and switched positions with her. She stumbled in shock as she appeared where he had been standing behind her companion. He leapt to stand between the two humans and the cluster and decided to change tactics a bit. He let the veil keeping him invisible dissipate, drawing out his rifle at the same time. He leveled it at a point slightly to the right of the man’s shoulder, and made sure that they could hear it when he slid a cartridge of rounds into the chamber. 

\----------

Rey stood rooted to the spot. The initial attack had caught her entirely off guard, and then suddenly being hit by a metaphorical tidal wave of the Force and finding herself on the other side of the room had nearly knocked her off her feet. Finn was less disoriented but she could feel his fear radiating in waves.

The figure that stood before them clicked it’s weapon loudly, making a point of aiming it at Finn, she thought. 

It was a truly alien creature. It appeared to be a humanoid covered in some sort of armor plating, dull white and adorned with gold filigree and more of that flowing script. It had curved, blunt-ended horns on its head and extending from both elbows, and was at least 2 meters tall.  
  
Its sense in the force was even more perplexing. It definitely had a force signature, but it was strangely muted. If she didn’t know better, she would have thought it was a force projection, but the dagger it had nearly thrown through her head was still embedded in the wall.

“Finn...it's some kind of guardian," she whispered, "I don’t think it’s actually alive.” 

As she spoke it turned it’s blank faceplate towards her and cocked its head to one side. Then it raised one clawed hand, and very deliberately pointed at her. Then it pointed at Finn. Then it pointed at the door. 

“Whatever it is, I think it’s telling us to leave.” Finn said. 

“But Finn, what about the people in those pods? And there are still more down below, can’t you feel them?” She must have gestured down at the floor because she suddenly felt the creature’s full attention focused on her, and for the first time she sensed danger from it.

She could sense that the situation was getting close to a tipping point. Could she and Finn kill this creature? It had definitely used the force but it didn’t seem to have a lightsaber. Was it alive or not and if not could it be killed? What had happened to the occupant of the fourth pod?

There were too many mysteries here, there was some key piece of information they were missing. Was there a way to reason with this guardian? Why didn't it kill them when they were invisible. Rey desperately tried to think as the creature took a step forward and swung it's rifle towards her. 

It wanted them to leave, maybe it didn’t want to hurt them, but it would if it thought it had to. That seemed like a line of reasoning that a sentient being would follow, but there was no way they could communicate with someone who was ten thousand years old and spoke a language no one remembered. So Rey decided to take a risky move.

She reached out through the force, and she tried to touch its mind.

\-----------

_An empty shell, like a machine made of flesh, with a silver cord of Force wrapped around a bolt stabbed through it’s skin and piercing its still and withered heart._

_She flowed like water down towards the source of the projection, and found him at the end of it, a luminous, human-shaped form of condensed power wreathed in light. And behind him, like a shadow, an echo darker than the void between stars._

_She heard a voice and she knew it was something from him, maybe a memory. “A demon standing at the shadow’s edge. Once human...but no longer.”_

_Then a flash of incandescent golden eyes and a streak of shocked surprise, and she found herself thrown violently back into her body._

\----------

Rey came back to herself gasping for breath. She gradually became aware of Finn hovering above her, and also the warframe.

Wait. What was a warframe?

_How did you do that? I thought only we could connect that way._

She stared up at the frame’s blank eyeless face, seeing in her mind again a pair of glowing golden eyes as she felt his voice echo in her mind.

She gathered together her scattered wits, and reached out again, finding a strand of his awareness that she realized he had intentionally stretched out to receive her response. 

_I used the force, I didn’t know you weren’t...I didn’t realize that wasn’t your real body._

He cocked his head to the side again, canting his horns to a curious angle, and asked the last question Rey expected.

_What is “the force”?_

_\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------_

A/N: So what do you think? I have more chapters written but I'd love to hear people's thoughts. Are you intrigued?


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is a bit expository, but it's necessary to clarify some things before the action can begin.

Finn wasn’t strong enough in the force yet to talk to people using his mind, but he was strong enough to be able to listen in. He sat back as Rey tried to explain to this person, who was something called a tenno, that she was a Jedi and had been looking for information about the force and other force users, and that she had not come here to hurt him or his...family? Finn thought that was the concept. 

This was made easier by the fact that they were communicating telepathically, so even though this person clearly did not speak Basic (and maybe couldn’t talk at all? He hadn’t made a single sound since he appeared) they didn’t have to deal with a language barrier. Context could be explained by sharing memories and ideas as well as words. 

On the other hand, it was made significantly harder by the fact that the tenno seemed to have absolutely no understanding of any aspect of the modern galaxy. It was becoming easier and easier to believe that maybe he really was ten thousand years old.

He didn’t know what the force was, and said that the abilities he used were from exposure to something called “the Void.” Rey seemed to have pulled some information out of his head when she tried to initiate contact so it didn’t come up, but it seemed like maybe this person was some kind of force ghost who was inhabiting a body that didn’t have a mind of its own. That was, frankly, extremely freaky.

It was also clear that there were at least several hundred other tenno in stasis further down below them, and this particular individual had awoken to protect them because he had sensed their ship arrive in the system. This, at least, made sense. If you were going to sleep for thousands of years you’d want to leave some kind of security system to wake you up if someone came to visit unexpectedly. 

_So now that we understand each other a bit_ , Rey said, _do you understand that we truly don’t mean you and the other people here any harm? We had no idea what was down here._

_I understand that you don't intend to hurt us_ , he replied, _but you have to leave this place. It isn’t meant for those who are not of the Tenno to see._

Finn could tell that Rey was confused by this response, but suddenly he realized that he understood. There was some kind of taboo at play here: they had intruded on something sacred and it was making this person edgy and uncomfortable. Rey, growing up alone in the desert and living at the furthest fringe of society, didn’t understand this kind of social situation at all.

“Rey, you have to tell him that we will leave,” Finn said, breaking into the mental conversation, “or we aren’t going to be able to get anything else out of him. Ask him if he will come up to the surface with us so we can talk more there.” The surface, away from these other pods, was probably safer. If the entire planet was some sort of holy ground then they might have a problem.  
  
The Tenno had turned his blank face at Finn while he spoke and now looked back at Rey as she repeated what Finn said. As soon as Rey suggested they talk on the surface he could see the creature’s tense crouch relax slightly and he knew he’d gotten it right.

_Yes, if you return to the surface,_ he said _._ He tilted his horned head slightly in what seemed like a thoughtful gesture. _I must admit that I am curious about what has become of the galaxy while we slept, but you must go now, I will follow in a moment._

Rey smiled and nodded, standing up and brushing dust off of her trousers. _We will be waiting. I have so many questions._

\-------

As they walked back towards the shaft, BB-8, who had used his good droid judgement and stayed tucked into a corner during the confrontation with the tenno, warbled curiously as he trundled along beside Rey.

“I don’t know either, BeBe, but I hope he does. I could feel that he was intensely curious, but for some reason he was really uncomfortable.”

“It’s a taboo,” Finn said, grinning a little at her confused look. “Basically, there’s something very special to him about that room. It’s like…” he struggled for a comparison that made sense “...if you had a secret room where you kept precious things that you didn’t want anyone else to know about or see. Things that were important but that you had to keep to yourself.”

Rey frowned and he sensed that something he’d said had touched a nerve deep inside her. “Oh I see,” she said, subdued. “I can see how that would make someone nervous.”

It had been like this ever since Exegol. Nobody knew what had happened down on that planet, although Finn had some theories. Rey had seemed fine for a few weeks afterwards. Then she vanished for three months only to reappear on Tatooine with a new lightsaber. For the most part she seemed okay, but every now and again she would have these moments where something reminded her of a bad memory and she'd become quiet and regretful. If anyone tried to ask her about it, she would pull into herself, closing off her presence in the force and becoming inscrutable. 

The only thing that Rey had been willing to share, and only with Finn, was that Ben Solo aka Kylo Ren had saved her life, but that after that he had died. He’d kept her secret and hadn’t even told Poe. Dating someone who wasn’t force sensitive had its advantages: even couples needed to have secrets sometimes. 

\-----------

He watched the humans use their unconventional void abilities to jump up into the shaft that lead to the surface and then turned to his cluster. He would not reveal any more of their secrets without discussing it with at least one other tenno. Carefully, he reached out to his sister and lightly brushed her mind with his own. Skel sleepily made contact with her brother. All tenno considered themselves family in a way, but he and Skel could remember being together before...everything. They had even found that their true bodies had a similar appearance, when they finally felt comfortable meeting face to face. Skel’s void essence was stained purple and his stained gold, but otherwise they could be twins.

_Azer,_ she said, _what is happening? We are needed?_

_I don’t know, Skel. People came here, they managed to open the door using the power of the void, but they weren’t tenno._

_That’s troubling._ She finally managed to find the release inside her pod and shakily pulled herself up as the cowling retracted. True bodies became very weak during extended periods of sleep and she’d need to summon one of her frames if she wanted to move further.

_It is but...,_ he shrugged, _they seemed very non-threatening._ He briefly explained what little they had told him before he had convinced them to leave. Skel’s face was still covered by the hood of her hibernation suit but he could feel her thoughtful frown

_There's something else as well,_ he said _, I didn’t awaken because the system activated. My Shadow woke me up so I could meet them._

_The Shadows are mysterious, but they usually look out for us_ , Skel said, thoughtful. 

He nodded. _They want to talk, but we tenno are practically made of secrets. I didn’t want to share more without discussing it with someone._

They sat in silence for a moment as Skel thought it over. She was more extroverted then he was, but she also considered things more carefully. Azer was more intuitive. 

_If we have really slept for ten thousand years this time, and nobody remembers the Tenno, then we have no idea what kind of galaxy we are now living in,_ Skel said after a while. _We don’t know if the system would even be able to tell us if we are needed. Or perhaps the system has failed, and we will find that the time of Awakening is now._ He could sense her lust for battle simmering. Skel was Madurai all the way down to her void core. 

_I agree to your plan, Azer,_ she finally said, regarding him seriously _. But, I will not return to the Dream. You may feel that these people are trustworthy but we can’t allow ourselves to be deceived: two sets of eyes can see in every direction. While I wait for my orbiter to power up so I can open my arsenal, I will listen to your conversation with these humans._ She raised one eyebrow and crossed her arms. _I assume that if you find what they have to say compelling, your plan is to follow them and explore this new galaxy we've found ourselves in?_

He shrugged, feeling a bit sheepish. Skel could always guess what he was really thinking. _It had crossed my mind. If I did, would you come with me?_

_Of course!_ _I can't let you have an adventure without me._

\---------

EVX-4 had greeted Rey and Finn when they finally got back to the top of the shaft with the statement that he was pleased they had not died. Apparently he had tried to contact them using the comm but the signal could not penetrate whatever stratum of rocks the Tenno had used to cover their sanctuary.

It seemed that the door to the outside had closed and he wasn’t sure if there was going to be a way to open it again. “...So I resigned myself to staying in this room and taking readings of these machines for as long as my power would last,” he finished. EVX-4 couldn’t really make facial expressions, being a droid, but Rey thought he sounded awfully dour. She might have to adjust his personality a bit when they got back. 

After some time had passed, Rey felt an odd ripple move through the force nearby, but she wasn’t sure what it meant. A few minutes later, the tenno appeared from inside the shaft, landing gracefully on the edge with hardly a sound of his boots on the floor. His armor had inexplicably changed color: he had been white and gold before, matching the walls. Now he was matte black, with some white markings and metallic silver trim here and there. He settled into a seated position that was surprisingly familiar to Rey: it was the same pose Jedi used to meditate.

_Let us talk._

Rey settled down into her own meditation pose facing him, feeling her excitement return. She had been a little worried that he wouldn’t come up to meet them. _Is this place comfortable for you? I’m sorry that we invaded your home._

_You didn’t understand what you were doing,_ he said, _and we have decided that you are not dangerous._

_We?_ she asked, confused. 

_Yes. I am now linked to my sibling. She may not be able to speak to you, but she can hear what you say to me._

He must have woken up the occupant of one of the other pods. Maybe that was the source of the disturbance she had felt in the force. Now that Rey was looking for it, she could sense another thread of force presence leading off of him, but she didn’t try to follow it. It seemed...rude, somehow. 

_Well...hello, then,_ she said, feeling a bit strange about having a conversation with an unseen spectator. She was starting to think that Tenno were just strange people. _My name is Rey Skywalker._ She held out her hand.

_I am called Azer,_ he replied. For a moment Rey was afraid that he wasn’t going to understand the concept of shaking hands, but he reached out to grasp her palm lightly with his clawed fingers. Up close, she could see that in addition to the long horns on his elbows, his forearms were also lined with tiny spikes.

Finn had stopped tinkering with EVX-4’s scanning equipment and had come to sit nearby, following along with the conversation through Rey. EVX-4 pulled out a small portable scanner and seemingly began collecting data on the being sitting in front of them. If the tenno noticed, he gave no indication. 

_How many of your people are on this planet Azer?_ Rey asked. _Most force-users in the known galaxy were wiped out many years ago, but it seems they missed you._

_I cannot tell you exactly how many of us there are,_ he said _, it would not be safe. There are more than 1 and less than a billion. I’m sorry Rey, but I must be firm,_ he leaned forward slightly and Rey got that slight sense of danger from him again. _Other than myself and my sister, the Tenno must remain asleep, at least for now. If you try to disturb our rest I will have no choice but to stop you._

Rey nodded, sensing that this was an issue that she needed to drop. Well. It would be ridiculous to hope that there was a whole force-using civilization that she could revive and bring back to known space. Clearly people who could sleep for ten thousand years felt that it would be alright to sleep for a few more. But she had managed to find two living, trained force users, and get one of them to talk to her, and that was more than she’d ever hoped for when they set out on this trip.

_Tell us about the Galaxy, Rey,_ he continued, gesturing out towards the door. _We would like to know what kind of a world we have found ourselves in._

\------

Between the two of them, Rey and Finn told Azer most of the story of recent history. How there had been a stable republic, how it had given way to the Empire, how the Jedi had been respected guardians of peace but were then hunted and killed by a small group of extremists. How the Alliance had finally managed to triumph and win a period of stability, and then how the First Order had appeared and set everything back again. 

_So basically, now the galaxy is falling into chaos and we’ve got all we can do to hold it together. There’s only two Jedi left that I know of, me and Finn, and neither of us really has much training. We were traveling the edges of known space looking for artifacts and relics, and then we found you._

_She reminds me of someone,_ Skel said with a rueful smile in her voice, ‘ _Tenno, the system continues to fall into chaos.’_

Azer tuned out Skel’s sarcasm. He was more interested in Rey. She wasn’t a Tenno, but now that he was relaxed and paying attention, he could tell that she had a very strong void affinity. And she had managed to connect with him on her own, in the same way tenno talked to each other. She was...interesting. For a human. He found himself having the stray thought that he’d like to see her with his real eyes someday. 

_What is the ultimate goal of all this searching, what do you hope to find?_ he asked, pushing his strange thoughts away. 

Rey considered his question for a moment and he sensed something melancholy surface in her. Her friend reached out and patted her shoulder. _I like to think that I will find enough information so that I can master the Force, and maybe someday we can teach other people to become Jedi,_ she said _, but, if I’m being honest, I also want to find more force-sensitive people so that I know we aren’t all alone._

_And,_ she said, finding her resolve again, _I think the Galaxy needs the Jedi right now. There’s been so much war, people are tried and are losing hope. They need something real to believe in again._

\------

She hadn’t really thought these words before. Somehow being joined in a circle of minds through the force with these ancient strangers, she felt things that had been floating around in her head for the last few months coming into focus. She wouldn’t be able to project them to him if they weren’t true. 

Azer nodded, and she sensed him withdraw from the connection and converse with his sibling. 

After a few minutes some kind of conclusion seemed to be reached, and he stood up.

_We are agreed,_ he said, and pulled a long, narrow blade from a sheath at his side that Rey hadn’t noticed before. He knelt, placed his weapon on the ground in front of him, then rested his hands on top of it. 

_We will return with you to see this new world for ourselves._

\-----------

Finn was initially concerned about where these two tenno were going to place themselves and whatever gear they wanted to bring with them on the Falcon. It quickly became clear, however, that both of them had their own ships that were hidden elsewhere on the planet.

That they were already on?

“Okay, so please. Rey, can you explain what these people actually are?” he asked as she started going through pre-flight checks. "I could not figure out _what_ was going on with that guy, Azer's, force signature."

“As far as I can tell, they are basically human force users,” she said, “but for some reason they keep their real, physical bodies hidden, and they use force projection to control a remote body called a Warframe that is also alive, but doesn’t have a conscious mind of its own.”

“But he was talking with us for a long time, isn’t force projection incredibly difficult to maintain?”  
  
“I think there’s some kind of technology involved that makes it easier for them: that warframe had a lot of mechanical parts.”

Finn rubbed his chin in thought. “Their real bodies might have some kind of implants or enhancement as well. I didn’t get as close to those pods as you but their sense in the force was really strange.” He frowned. "Everything about them is really strange."

He watched her calibrating systems and reading over diagnostics, trying to think how best to phrase his next question. Finally he decided to just get it out in the open. “Rey, do you really think it’s safe to take them back with us? They are from the distant past, and we really don’t know anything about them. This whole...warframe system, don’t you think it sounds like something designed by someone who was only interested in creating unstoppable, force-using soldiers who couldn’t be killed?”

She frowned and he could sense her trying to figure out how to put her feelings into words. This was often a challenge for Rey, he had discovered. She was so strong in the force, sometimes the things that it told her were overwhelming and it was difficult for her to make others understand. Maybe someday he would be strong enough to feel these premonitions and intuitions as well and they’d both become inscrutable wizards.

“They’re definitely not Jedi, that’s for sure,” Rey finally said, “but...they don’t seem to be tainted by the dark side, which is surprising given how powerful they are. So much of his thoughts were alien and confusing when I touched his mind, I think they see the world very differently from the way we do. And you’re right, that could be dangerous. But...the feelings he had for his sister and the others he was protecting...I’m certain that he’s not an evil being.”  
  
“As for their strange way of living…” she paused and Finn felt her immersing herself in the force, trying to clarify her intuitions, “I think it’s something that was chosen for them by others. There is some sense...almost of deception. But maybe self-deception?” She shook her head. “Sorry, what I’m sensing is hard to clarify, but it doesn't make me worried.” She shrugged, “we came out here to find knowledge or artifacts left behind by past force users. I can’t think of anything more significant we could possibly have found than two actual past force users.”

Finn nodded, she had a point about that. “If the force is telling you to trust them, then I trust in the Force.” he said. 

She gave him a real, genuine smile, something that was rarer than it should have been lately. Despite his doubts he felt something lighten in his chest. “Thanks Finn,” she said. 

“Excuse me Sir,” EVX-4 broke in, “but I am receiving a transmission from an unknown source requesting...language data, I believe.”

“An unknown source?” Finn said, frowning. 

“Hang on,” Rey said, and he could sense her talking to the tenno. “It’s okay Evix, Azer’s...ship’s computer, I think, is trying to figure out how to send us a transmission. Send it whatever it needs, but request permission for anything classified.”

“Very well, Mistress.”

A few minutes passed as the machines passed data back and forth.

“The tenno computer is signalling to me that it will attempt to make a transmission in Basic to our comm system. Stand by.” EVX-4 finally announced. “I am very skeptical as to whether this will be successful: its operating system is completely incomprehensible to me.”

After a few more seconds the comm light on the control panel flashed, and Finn thumbed on the speaker. There was a long moment of hazy screeches and warbles and Finn and Rey looked at each other in confusion, but then a surprisingly cheerful female voice came across the comm. 

“Greetings humans of the future! I am Terrine, ship’s cephalon for Operator Azer. Are you receiving me?”

“Ye..es, we are.”

“Excellent! Operator Azer has informed me that we will be engaging in a void translation and following your coordinates to obtain data on the current state of civilized space! Wow! In order to accomplish this, can you send me the following...” this was followed with a series of requests for various hyperspace coordinates, including their next destination.

“Next stop is point X-3-455433, which is…..4 days away,” Finn said into the comm. “There’s nothing there, we just have to perform a course correction around a pulsar, as well as downloading the most up to date astrogation data.”

“Wow 4 days! Really?” the computer replied. It had quite the personality. “I will let my tenno know, I suspect they will choose to spend the translation in hibernation. Dreamers, you know?”

Finn didn’t know. “Just let me know when you have an astrogation solution.”

After a few minutes it signaled that it was ready.

“Alright, jumping to hyperspace on my mark.” Finn said, and Rey leaned forward to grip the lever. Rey loved throwing the lever to send them into hyperspace. Something to do with being able to go anywhere at absurdly high speeds was appealing to her.

“3, 2, 1, mark!” Rey pulled the lever, stars blurred into starlines, and the viewport bloomed into the milky nothingness of hyperspace.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next chapter: an unexpected detour into Hutt crime space.
> 
> By the way, neither of the tenno in this story is going to have all 40 something warframes available because it's just too much. They are overpowered enough as it is. They each have a small selection of prime frames based on their preferred combat roles. If you're familiar with the game you might have noticed that Azer is using Loki prime, which is his favorite frame.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I was going to make this entire adventure one chapter but it's too long so I broke it in two. I am amazed at how many people are apparently reading this strange story. Knowing that someone out there is reading it inspires me to continue.

It was on their third drop out of hyperspace that they received the distress call. Rose sounded like she was at the edge of panic and just barely managing to hold it together. 

“Just..just calm down, Rose,” Finn said, trying to project calm using the force. Her small hologram took a deep breath and regained some of her composure.

“Sorry Finn,” she said, “I know you and Rey are on your Jedi mission, but I didn’t know who else to call.”   
  
“Well, our Jedi mission has recently come to an end, actually,” he said. “Start at the beginning and tell me what happened.” 

Rose launched into the story. She and Poe had gone to Nar Uttana, the stronghold of one of the few remaining Hutt oligarchs. They were trying to track down a former resistance member who had stolen a huge amount of new republic data and then vanished. Poe had been sure that his contact on the planet was still good, but as it turned out, the contact was compromised. When Poe went to meet him, the Hutt’s enforcers were waiting. Rose didn’t know exactly where he had been taken, but she knew it must be somewhere in the Hutt’s massive criminal facility. She thought maybe they were going to sell him to the First Order or some other group that Poe had managed to piss off over the years. 

“He took one of the guys from the ground assault unit with him, but he hasn’t come back yet either," Rose said. “I’m safe on the ship for now, but I’m not trained for infiltration or hand to hand combat and I'm sure they'll find me eventually. I didn’t know what to do so I looked for anyone who was nearby and it was you and Rey.”

Finn could feel his heart pounding. Poe had been captured, maybe he was already dead. No, there was no way Poe Dameron would let himself die in some Hutt holding cell. He had to still be alive.

“You did the right thing, Rose,” Finn said, “there’s no way in the entire galaxy that I’m going to let him die now, not after everything he’s managed to survive. We should be there in about...33 hours.”

“What’s going on?” Rey said, coming into the cockpit and plopping down in the pilot’s chair. Her hair was a little damp: she must have just come from the ‘fresher.

Finn shook his head. “My boyfriend has gotten himself captured by a Hutt, apparently. He went to meet some contact who turned out to be bad, and never came back. Rose was on their ship so she’s okay, but she can't rescue him by herself.”   
  
Rey frowned, and Finn could feel her agitation rise to match his own. “I'm sure he's okay, Finn, Poe is strong. Evix, can you pull up information on…”

“Nar Uttana,” Finn supplied.

“...Nar Uttana: who’s in charge, what the situation is?” Rey said, looking over at the droid.

“Of course, Mistress. Nar Uttana is currently overseen by Ooltha the Hutt, who is currently the 6th most elevated Hutt Oligarch in their twisted little conglomerate. She has extensively upgraded the defenses of the planet, specifications on screen.” 

A data readout appeared on the Falcon’s HUD, and Finn leaned forward to read it. “Reports indicate that although Ooltha has scaled back her activities significantly in the last 9 months, formerly she did a large amount of business with the First Order…helping to locate vulnerable populations for conscription and...and labor.”

“So you’re saying that she helped them kidnap people and make them into storm troopers,” Finn said.    
  
“Essentially,” EVX-4 said. “Resistance intelligence indicates that due to the decline of the First Order over the last year, she has been looking for...new buyers for her merchandise.”

“Slavers!” Rey said, banging her fist against the control panel. At least she wasn’t angry enough to leave a dent this time. “Well, obviously we have to go save Poe, but how can we with just the two of us and the Falcon?”

“Well…,” Finn rubbed his chin, thinking. It was a little risky but, “...we do have the Tenno. Maybe they’d be willing to help?”

Rey frowned thoughtfully. “...I suppose it’s worth asking. Even if they can’t help, we need to let them know that we’re going somewhere dangerous. They might want to wait somewhere safe.”

\-----------------------------------

Azer was tinkering with his foundry when they dropped back into normal space after the latest void translation. Over the last several days he and his cephalon, Terrine, had managed to get most of his equipment working again. Helminth’s door remained resolutely shut, but according to Terrine’s readings the infested creature was in good health after coming out of suspended animation. He supposed that was a good thing, although part of him had hoped that maybe it had finally died.  His arsenal was in good order, and all of his warframes were still intact although a few had needed minor repairs. 

Generally, he felt that he had returned to a state of combat readiness befitting a Tenno.    
  
“Operator, I have received a message from the future!” his cephalon’s voice came over the ship’s internal comm. “The humans would like to talk to you. Do you want to use your Tenno communication to talk to the woman, or would you like to try using the comm translation system I have created?”

“I'd like to test using the translation system. Can you contact Cephalon Xebu on Skel’s ship and patch her in as well?” he said, inspecting a sniper rifle for wear. 

“Of course, Operator Azer! I’ll signal you when it's ready.”

He stalked up the ramp to his control center and waited. After a moment, his comm clicked   
  
“You’re all set! Opening channel...now.”   
  
The comm clicked again, and a mechanical, distorted version of Rey’s voice came over the comm. “Hello? Are you receiving me?”

“Tenno Azer, receiving.” he said. A few seconds later, Skel checked in as well. “Tenno Skel, receiving.”

“Hello, both of you,” Rey said, “I’m sorry to have to tell you this but we’ve gotten some bad news from one of our fellow resistance operatives, and we have to make a slight detour.”   
  
“What sort of detour?” Skel asked. He could feel the force of her raised eyebrow.   
  
“One of our compatriots has been captured by slavers,” Finn’s voice came across the comm. “It’s high priority for us to get him back, but um...”

There was a pregnant pause.

“Well,” Rey continued, “basically the planet he’s being held on is pretty well fortified by the leader of a criminal cartel, and between me, Finn, and the Falcon, we aren't sure we can rescue him. No one else is close enough to get here in time to help and...we were wondering...”

“Rey Skywalker," Skel said, cutting her off, "are you requesting Tenno assistance for an infiltration and rescue operation?” She sounded incredibly formal, but Azer knew that resting inside her somatic link, she was probably grinning. Skel loved this kind of thing: she hated slavers. Azer certainly had no good feelings for them either.    
  
“Yes! I mean, yes, if you’re willing to take the risk.” Rey said.

“What's the level of danger you anticipate for this mission?” Azer said, thinking about which frame he might need to use. He shook his head and if he’d been in his true body, he probably would have smiled as well. They hadn’t even agreed to do it yet and he was already thinking about preparations. 

“It’s gonna be pretty rough,” Finn said, “the whole place belongs to this criminal Hutt oligarch named Ooltha, and she’s got a mobile defense platform in orbit. Then down on the moon's surface, her facility's like a military base. If we get caught, we’ll probably be killed or imprisoned and sold.”

“Complex, perhaps, but not impossible,” Skel said. Azer had to agree: breaking into a fortified base and extracting a prisoner was the kind of work that Tenno were best at.    
  
“If your droid can send Terrine the information on this planet and its system, we'll begin formulating a plan,” Azer said. “Send the coordinates and we'll follow your lead.”   
  
“So you’re in?” Finn said, “just like that?”   
  
He knew Skel was thinking the same thing he was when he replied. “If what you’ve told us is true, we've been dreaming for a very long time. This is a good opportunity to test ourselves against your modern galaxy. Also..."   
  
“..We hate slavers,” Skel finished for him. 

“Thank you,” Rey said, and he could feel her mood lifting even from the other ship, “I’ll have Evix send over the data.” She terminated the transmission and Terrine let him know she was receiving the information.

_ What do you think Azer? _ Skel said, switching to Tenno void communication.  _ What does that intuition of yours tell you about this...rescue mission? _

Azer thought about it for a long moment, then shrugged.  _ I don’t think they’re trying to trick us, but... _ _ I suppose it's possible that these people are trying to trap us somehow. However... _

_ Yes,  _ Skel said, and he could sense their thoughts align, _ anyone who tries to trap a Tenno won't live to realize their mistake. _

\-----------------------

They dropped into the Uttana system out beyond the orbit of the 7th planet, with the intention to park the Falcon on one of the its uninhabited moons. The ship was just too recognizable at this point: when they were looking for traces of the Jedi it had been perfect for convincing shy locals to talk to them, but on a hostile Hutt world it would have the opposite effect.   
  
The Tenno were not hiding their ships on any moon or asteroid, because they didn't need to. In fact the only reason Rey knew they had two of them was because she could sense both Tenno in the force and they were too far apart to be on the same vessel unless it was larger than a star destroyer. It was apparently the most advanced cloaking technology that EVX-4 had ever tried to scan. "So we are going to use your orbiter craft to go down to Nar Uttana, but me and Finn can't actually come on board, is that what you're saying?" she asked, frowning.    
  
“That's correct,” Azer’s ‘voice’ came across the comm. It was pretty badly distorted and digitized by the translation system his computer had set up. The most she could tell was that he was probably a man, not a young boy but not particularly elderly. “However, in order to insert our warframes into enemy ships or hostile territory, a Tenno orbiter is equipped with a much smaller landing craft that can house 1 occupant safely...and perhaps up to 2 more if the situation were dire. We Tenno are also capable of using a personal EVA flight system called an archwing that allows us to travel a short distance in hard vacuum, although,” his voice turned critical, “its defensive capabilities are severely lacking.” 

“While we drop down into the core of this system, you and Finn can reside safely inside the landing craft,” Skel’s voice came through. Rey was beginning to get a sense of the two Tenno personalities she was dealing with. Skel was more assertive and formal. Azer tended to let Skel speak first when they were on the comm, but he was also slightly more laid back and talkative. “It seems unlikely that they'll be able to detect our approach when you were unable to do so at any point on our journey so far.”   
  
“I have to agree with that assessment” EVX-4 said, looking over his sensor data. “Their ability to disappear is quite impressive.” 

“Anyway,” Azer said, “we'll make our way to the 4th Lagrangian, then launch down to the surface in the landing craft. Skel and I can use our flight equipment to follow. The landing craft will then remain in low orbit, masked from all sensors and on standby.”

“Once we meet up with Rose,” Finn said, “we can get updated intel and figure out a plan for getting into that base.”

“Alright,” Rey said, rubbing her hands together. She hadn’t realized how much she was itching for some kind of action until now. “Let’s go.”

\------------------------

The journey down to Nar Uttana was not as bad as Rey had feared. Being stuffed in a cramped landing pod designed for someone who was 2 meters tall, wearing an environment suit and a re-breather for 2 hours wasn’t exactly her idea of fun. But at least she could use the force to get updates from Azer about what was happening outside, so it wasn’t quite as claustrophobic as it otherwise would have been. Once the lander detached and began its descent down to the surface, he had attached himself to the outer hull using his flight system. Apparently this was only possible because of the relatively thin atmosphere of the moon.

She spent 20 minutes with her heart in her throat as they dropped down past the range of the orbital defense platform. Both Tenno thought it looked “even more poorly constructed than a Grineer Galleon,” whatever that was, and soon enough Rey found herself being dumped out of the bottom of the ship into the landing area that Skel had chosen. Which was, to her delight, a junkyard. 

Life on Jakku had been almost entirely unpleasant, but the one thing she had enjoyed was scavenging. By the time they had reached the edge of the scrap yard, she’d almost completely filled her pack with bits and pieces that she thought might come in handy later. 

Ahead of her, Azer crouched down behind the broken off wing of a light transport. Rey, Skel, and Finn joined him. They'd reached the wall surrounding the scrapyard, which was thick duracrete and stretched a good 25 meters high. 

He was using the same warframe he had been before, only he’d changed colors again and was a sort of deep dull gray, with mat black patches here and there. Skel’s warframe was also gray and black, but obviously a different model: it had long vicious looking claws on its hands and feet and a crown of metal spikes and sharp flanges on its head. It was shorter than Azer’s frame, but still looked vicious and powerful. The gigantic war hammer, which was almost as tall as she was, frankly just added to the aesthetic.  She couldn’t help but remember what Finn had said before, about what kind of people would make unliving remotely controlled machine soldiers and for what purpose. She hoped they weren't making a mistake.

There was a single guard in a small booth at the entrance to the scrapyard. He didn’t look particularly threatening himself, but it would be best to get by him without being noticed.

_ Do it, Azer, _ Skel said. The other Tenno nodded, and then vanished from sight. 

A moment later, the guard slumped over in his chair, and the gate opened seemingly by itself.    
  
_ It's safe to exit, I've disabled the security system for the next minute and there are no remaining witnesses on the other side,  _ Azer’s voice came across, but Rey couldn’t tell exactly where he was. His ability to become invisible masked his presence in the force almost as much as it hid him from sight. 

Skel crouched down, and then effortlessly launched herself forward a good 20 meters, landing in a roll that flowed into another leap, clearing the gate entirely. There was a ripple in the force as she did so: she must be using it to enhance her physical power. 

Feeling a bit of competitive spirit, Rey reached out to the force and used it to propel herself part of the way towards the gate. She could feel Finn shaking his head at her but he was smiling. In fact he seemed almost relieved somehow. 

_ You can use your void power to propel yourself almost the way we do, _ Azer said, and she was surprised by how impressed he sounded.    
  
_ I usually use it for jumping higher than I normally could. I hadn’t thought of using it to move that way until I saw Skel leap just now, _ she said, as she passed through the gate and they entered the city. She took note of two more security guards lying on the ground nearby. She was relieved to see that they were still alive: Azer had knocked them out but he hadn’t killed them. 

“Can Azer close the gate?” Finn asked quietly, jogging up next to her.

_ Unfortunately, I had to completely deactivate this console in order to turn off the security system. I might be able to pull the gate closed, though,  _ he said, and she thought she could sense his presence in the force flicker briefly into existence then vanish again somewhere up at the top of the wall, but she couldn’t be sure.    
  
_ I can take care of that, _ Rey said, planting her feet and reaching out with the force. The gate wasn’t _that_ heavy, despite being tall. She raised her hands, made a pulling motion, and the gate rattled closed without much trouble.

She could feel both of the Tenno focusing their attention on her, and she felt a little flush of pride. Apparently they’d never seen anyone close a gate using just their mind.    
  
_ A useful ability, _ Azer said, and he was definitely impressed this time.  _ Come, we should hurry, the computer will be resetting soon. We'll follow you to the rendezvous point with your comrade. _

_ \--------------------------- _

Finn wasn’t sure he’d ever seen Rose so happy to see him when they finally arrived at the hangar the ship was hidden at. When he finally convinced her it was really him she unlocked the door and dropped the high powered laser cannon that she’d somehow managed to detach from the ship. She ran over and launched herself at him, locking him in a crushing hug. She looked between him and Rey and smiled, rubbing her face.   
  
“I’m so glad to see you guys,” she said, then looked up as the Tenno silently swept in behind them. “Um...friends of yours?”   
  
“Yeah, so. You know how we were on a journey to find information about past force users...” Finn started.   
  
“...Well, as it turned out, we found some actual past force users,” Rey said, "they've been in hibernation for...a really long time. Their names are Azer and Skel."

Neither of the warframes said anything, but  Skel put her hands together and bowed. 

“They say that they’re at your service,” Rey said. 

“Oh...wow...um...okay,” Rose said, “are they like...Jedi or something?”   
  
“Kind of,” Finn said, “at least, they can use the force. And more importantly, they’ve agreed to help us rescue Poe so…” he shrugged.

“Well. Any docking bay an ion storm I guess,” Rose said, turning back towards the ship’s entrance ramp. It was a medium light freighter that Finn had seen around the resistance base before. “Come on, I’ll fill you in on everything inside.”

\--------------------------

“So I managed to steal a maintenance contractor’s keycard and get into in the facility, and I got _all_ the dirt,” Rose said, pulling up the schematics on the ship’s main display. The two Tenno both leaned forward to study it intently. Rose really didn’t know what to make of the two aliens, but she wasn’t kidding about needing whoever they could find. If Finn and Rey had brought them along, and they wanted to help, she wasn’t going to say no. 

“As you can see,” she continued, “Ooltha has her penthouse up here, then she has a bunch of ‘business offices’ that are doing various things like processing spice, money laundering, and other lovely activities, in the middle floors. Then down below ground level,” she pointed to the bottom of the schematic, “is the underground holding area where they keep people of interest who they have captured, bounties they’re trying to collect on, and people with special skills who they’re trying to sell for a high price. Most of Ooltha’s actual slaving activity is carried out by her fleet.”

Finn frowned, “so we can free the people she’s got here, but it won’t really affect her larger operation. Still, at least we know where Poe is being held.”

One of the Tenno tapped a spot on the schematic with one claw and looked over at Rey.

“Azer wants to know if that’s the main data center for the building,” Rey said. “He thinks he might be able to get in and download some of their information, like where their ships are going to steal people from next.”

Finn nodded, “if we had that, some of our people could work on it, maybe set up an ambush.”

“I mean that’s the data center but I dunno,” Rose said, “it’s pretty well guarded and the main door is usually sealed.”   
  
“He says that he’s not worried,” Rey said. 

Rose looked over at the Tenno. She didn't know if he could read any of the words on the display, but he was studying the building layout carefully, following the red lines indicating alarm power relays with a claw to trace them to their source. The shorter Tenno pointed to the main entrance, then to a maintenance hatch at bedrock level on the other side of the facility. Rose felt a smile starting to from on her face. “Is she thinking what I think she is?” she said, looking over at Rey.

Rey looked at the Tenno, who must be saying something.

“Seriously?” Finn said. 

The Tenno nodded.

Rey looked over at Rose, and she had that grin that meant they were about to do something dangerous and maybe insane. “Skel says that she wants to be the one to cause a distraction at the main gate.”

The Tenno hefted her war hammer and nodded. The handle was almost as long as Rose was tall.  What had she gotten herself into? 

\------------------------------

It was 12 minutes past perihelion when Skel arrived at the fortress of Ooltha the Hutt.  She made no attempt to hide herself, calmly walking up to the main entrance. 

She stopped when she was standing about 10 meters from the door. A cephalon or proxy of some sort opened up its speaker, and made some sounds in a language she didn’t understand, but it didn’t matter.

Valkyr’s rage was like a red fog that she was submerged in, blocking everything else out. Skel let her mind melt into the warframe’s vestigial instincts completely, becoming one with its pain and fury. After resting silent and soulless for such a long time, there would be nothing that could stop them. 

She channeled void energy through the frame, and it released a howling scream of rage that split the silence of the night. Then she jumped 15 meters straight up, and brought her sledge down on the gate. It bent, but it did't break.  Three laser turrets had started firing at her: that might become a problem soon. She swung the sledge again, and this time it crackled with energy and the door fell open. 

She continued into the inner courtyard. It was an ugly place: designed to provide a trap for shooting enemies with no aesthetic value at all. Humans and aliens with guns emerged and started shooting: they hadn't yet realized that they were the ones who were trapped here.

She planted her feet, and opened up her void core, letting the warframe freely draw on her power. She screamed again as her  _ real  _ claws, pure, crystallized void energy, blazed into being. The blaster bolts slapped harmlessly against her void-strengthened armor like spring rain as she leaped forward into the assembled guards. 

_ She would paint this dull, gray place red with their blood. _

\------------------------------

_ Don’t try to talk to Skel again for a while,  _ Azer sent to Rey, as he sat perched on a railing high above cloaked from view.  _ She’s using a special ability and...she won’t be able to answer you properly.  _

_ How is her distraction going? _ Rey sent back. She actually sounded anxious. Azer shook his head. Far below him, Skel’s Valkyr had finished clearing the courtyard and climbed up onto the wall. She was currently ripping the circuitry out of one of the laser turrets with her claws. It was obvious that these people had never seen a warframe before, they had no idea how to deal with one.

_ I would say that it’s effective _ , he said, as he saw more armed beings pouring out of doors around the courtyard. Skel threw her sledge into the crowd and then jumped down after it.  _ You should be able to move in soon. I'll meet you back down at the maintenance hatch when you have extracted your friend: if anything goes wrong, let me know and I'll try to assist. _

_ Okay!  _ she sent back, and withdrew from the mental connection. 

\------------------------------

Rey, Finn, and Rose sat crouched behind a refuse container in an alley on the far side of the facility. There were two guards patrolling a walkway higher up. A few seconds after Rey dropped contact with Azer, an alarm started going off and the guards took off at high speed.

“Wow, that must be some distraction,” Rose said, looking up. “That’s the ‘everyone get the kriff down here right now’ alarm.” 

“Do you think she’s going to be okay?” Finn said, looking over at Rey.

“Azer is keeping an eye on her. He didn’t sound worried, though,” Rey said, reaching out to the force. She wasn’t getting any sense of immediate danger. She stood up from behind the crate, and made a force-enhanced dash to the maintenance hatch. After a few seconds Finn and Rose joined her.

“Can you open it?” Finn asked, looking uncertainty at the hatch. Rose and Rey both turned their heads to give him incredulous glances.

“Sorry, carry on.” he said sheepishly.

Between the two of them they made quick work of the lock. Rey jumped in first and slid down a few feet, finding herself behind a grate that looked out on a small engineering area. She didn’t sense any living things, but she still shifted her lightsaber into her hand, then unlatched the grate and dropped down into the room.  Finn and Rose slid down next to her a few seconds later.

“Okay so, according to this, we’re at the northwest corner of the holding area. So here’s the question. Do we free everyone or just Poe?”

They looked at each other. Rey frowned and reached out to Azer.

_ How much longer do you think the guards are going to be distracted? _ she sent.

_ I'd estimate no more than 10 minutes, _ Azer sent back.  _ She only has so much void energy and when it runs dry she'll need to rest to recover. _

“I don’t think we have enough time to save all the prisoners,” she said.   
  
“Well, let’s just focus on finding Poe first and we’ll see if we can help anyone else after that.” Finn said.

The other two nodded.

\--------------------------------------------

Azer moved through the hallways of the cartel facility like a ghost, invisible and unnoticed by any personnel he came across. Terrine had marked the location of the data center on his warframe’s HUD, but he doubted he'd be able to just walk right in through the door.  When he arrived at the nearest bulkhead he found it guarded by two non-human individuals with eclectic armor. He ignored them and checked the bulkhead, but it was sealed and there was no port for him to jack in to.

As usual, though, whoever had designed the building hadn’t had warframe infiltration in mind when they built it, and after some searching he found a vent shaft leading up from a lower floor that he could easily climb up the inside of. Then it was just a matter of cutting open the grate at the top with his nikana and he was in.

The console was unfamiliar, but there was a small circular hole that looked like it might be some kind of data port. He flicked his wrist to extend his parazon blade, and experimentally slid it into the port. 

“Terrine, can you interface with this system?” he said over his internal comm, hoping that she could. This whole side adventure could turn out to be a waste of time if she couldn’t.

“Analyzing...yes! It's a close cousin of the human's ship.” she sent back. “Very similar code base and OS. Accessing databanks…download started!”

If he had lungs he’d have let out a sigh of relief. “How long will it take for you to finish?”

“Only a few minutes, but you’ll need to keep your parazon inserted into the port. No sticking to the ceiling for you!” 

He settled in to wait, channeling void energy to replenish his cloak. After only a moment, though, Terrine signaled him again. 

“I’m still downloading but I did start reading some of the data that’s coming in. I hate to bring the mood down but, I have some bad news Operator…”

\------------------------------------

The gold light of Rey's lightsaber flashed in the dim hallway, its light reflecting off the row of cell bars as she used the blade to reflect a blaster shot. Finn felt her reach out with the force, and use it to shove the shooter hard against the wall. His head cracked against a pillar, and he slumped to the floor. Finn moved in quickly and took his blaster, pulling the power pack and tucking it into his pocket. 

They’d gone through at least half of the basement of the facility and he was becoming increasingly apprehensive. Poe hadn’t been in the cell Rose thought he should have been, and he hadn't been in any of the others they'd checked. In fact most of the cells down here were empty, and Finn's bad feeling was getting stronger and stronger. Something was not right.

He sensed a ripple in the force: Azer was reaching out to Rey. He focused, and connected his own force presence to theirs.

_ I've infiltrated the data center and begun downloading Ooltha's files, _ the Tenno began,  _ but Terrine has identified a problem. You aren't on the correct floor.  _

Finn felt the bottom drop out of his stomach as his suspicion was confirmed. He relayed the message to Rose.

“How is he downloading data without any equipment?” Rose said incredulously.  Finn just shrugged.

_ The cell block you're currently investigating is for disciplinary action against members of her organization, a recent change that hadn't been copied into public files yet. There's a secure detention block three floors up, I'll have Terrine relay the location _ , he said.  _ As soon as I finish here, I'll find you.  _

Rose’s datapad pinged and she checked it. “What's this new location?” she asked, clearly confused.

"Azer says that's where they've moved Poe to" Finn said.

_Also, Skel is going to need to retreat in the next few minutes, so watch out for more security forces wandering the corridors,_ the Tenno continued. _Although...I think it'll take them time to recover from her assault._ Finn thought he could detect a hint of brotherly pride in the other man's voice. He glanced over at Rey, holding her lightsaber in a ready stance as they started back down the corridor. That was a kind of pride he could definitely understand. 

Rose brought up the updated schematic, and they turned down another hallway of mostly empty cells. Any prisoners they did come across were in pretty bad shape. Finn wished that they had time to free them all.

\-------------------------------------------  
  
When the red tide of rage finally began to flow out, and she came back to herself somewhat, Skel thought she was about 4 floors up and 40 or so meters into the building. She was standing in a large room that was being used for some kind of pharmaceutical processing. Drugs? Bodies with cauterized claw wounds and broken equipment littered the floor, and it seemed that more armed thugs were approaching. She rested one hand over her heartless chest, feeling her void core was close to running dry. She focused and sealed it up, ending the hysteria. She staggered slightly but didn't fall.   
  
Leaping out of the room, she launched herself down the corridor and swung her sledge into the first window she could find. As she tumbled out through the crushed wall she flipped over and raised one claw to fire her frame's hook line, flying to the top of the concrete block of a building she'd just left. 

_Azer,_ she said, sitting down heavily. _The distraction is over. Get out as soon as you can._

\-------------------------------------------

Rey stopped them just before rounding a corner, sensing danger ahead. They had come across a few guards, but she’d made quick work of them with her lightsaber. It would have taken them less time to get here, but they’d had to detour around the swath of destruction that Skel had left in her wake. Rey had never seen anything like it, it was as though doors and hallways were like paper to the warframe and she'd smashed straight through the building. Obviously the huge size of that war hammer wasn’t just for show.

No wonder nobody was looking for them yet. 

Now that they were here, Rey sensed multiple presences in the hallway in front of them, as well as inside the detention area itself.  Very carefully, she peeked around the corner, drawing the force close around herself to make her unnoticeable.  It was even worse than she’d thought.  She signaled the other two for quiet and reached out to Finn’s mind.  _ 5 stormtroopers,  _ she said, _ heavily armed. More inside. _

_ Damn it, _ she felt him think.  _ They’ll signal whoever is commanding them the instant we show ourselves. Where’s Azer? _

_ I'm here, _ the Tenno said, materializing behind Rose. Rose clapped her hand over her mouth to cover her gasp of surprise.  _ Do you need me to remove those 5 guards in a manner that doesn't reveal you're here? _

_ Can you do it? _ Rey said.

_ Yes. However, it won’t matter when they fail to check in. We need to rescue your friend quickly: I've discovered that Ooltha is currently entertaining a First Order general up in her penthouse who she plans to sell this person to. I suspect they’ll be calling him up soon. _

Force, things were getting crazy.  _ It sounds like we don’t have much of a choice, then. _

Azer nodded and stepped forward, gesturing to Rey to step back. He glanced around the corner, then disappeared again. Rey peered around the corner again to watch. 

One moment the stormtroopers were standing at the ready, blasters in hand. The next moment, there was a disturbance in the force, and all of their blasters were thrown out of their hands. As they staggered and turned to look for their attacker, Azer appeared in their midst, drawing his narrow blade and turning it so the blade faced backwards, and in the next moment they were all on the floor. 

Rey covered her mouth with her hand as she came around the corner.  _ Did you have to kill them?  _

_ They aren’t dead, _ he said.  _ I sensed that you were relieved that I didn’t kill the guards at the junkyard, so I reversed the blade and hit them with the blunt edge. They won’t wake up for a while, though. Why are you so concerned about the lives of these soldiers, but not the criminals guarding this facility? You do understand how many people Skel has already killed. _

Finn and Rose followed Rey out of hiding and Finn bent to pull one of the stormtrooper’s helmets off. It was a young man, maybe 16 or 17 years old. “Ooltha’s guards, for better or worse, mostly choose to work for her,” he said, “but these kids, the First Order just picks them up and conscripts them. They can either become troopers, or be killed." He looked down sadly, "during the war we didn't have a choice, but now we try not to kill them if we can."

Azer stared down at the trooper and Rey sensed something from him, that she had sensed from Finn many times. He was seeing himself in that unconscious boy. 

_ I’ll do my best,  _ he finally said, _ but I still think you’re making a false dichotomy in your minds. If you choose to pick up the blade, you should be ready to use it, or die by it. _

_ Even so, _ Rey said.

They stared at each other for a long moment, and Rey felt she could almost see those gold eyes again, looking back at her from beyond the frame's eyeless face. Something indefinable passed between them through the force, and she felt him waver. He turned his head to the side and she could almost hear him sigh. _Even so...very well._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next chapter: the conclusion of their adventure on Nar Uttana.
> 
> -I'm sorry Poe hasn't appeared yet, I promise he will show up in all his glory next chapter.
> 
> -Skel's favorite warframe is Valkyr, by the way. Did she come up with her "break everything to distract them" plan because she thought it was the best plan, or did she just want to find a good excuse to break everything?
> 
> -A parazon is basically a spike that warframes use to hack into computer systems. It's a relatively new part of the game so I figured I'd provide a definition down here.


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Nar Uttana part 2. Will the squad be able to liberate Poe without getting murdered by the First Order? I mean they have two Tenno so it seems likely, but still. In real life the rescue target doesn't just warp to the extraction point.

General Arielus Bisset tried to smile politely as the massive collection of Hutt flesh sitting on a small dais across from him licked her small, dainty fingers with a disturbingly large tongue. There were many cultures across the galaxy that preferred to dine with a potential business partner before a meeting. He’d always felt it was deeply unfortunate that Hutts were one of them. Not that Ooltha hadn’t provided a fine spread for himself and his lieutenant, but it was hard to really enjoy it while the Hutt stuffed a series of small, still-wriggling creatures down her maw. 

Apparently finished with her meal, Ooltha waved over her own lieutenant, a tall human with a thick beard named Jek, if he recalled correctly. She spoke in Huttese as usual, and he translated.

“The mighty Ooltha the Hutt is pleased that you’re interested in resurrecting the agreement that was so beneficial to both the First Order and herself,” the man began. “On this data pad you will find her terms.”

He handed the pad to Lieutenant Lefev, who took it and began to scan over the data. There was a beep and Ooltha’s man looked down at his comm.

“I’m sorry but I have to take this, it’s a code 1,” he said. Ooltha said something in Huttese and he nodded, walking to the corner of the room.

“This looks in order, Sir,” Lefev said, “except...there’s no price listed here for turning over the rebel leader and criminal activist Poe Dameron.”

Ooltha’s man was having a quiet but intense conversation with his boss. Bisset felt something turn sour in the pit of his stomach. Something was wrong.

“Ah, yes,” the man said. “The great Ooltha has decided, in her infinite generosity, to offer you the resistance leader as a gift. To make it clear how prosperous she hopes future relations between herself and the First Order will be.”

In other words, she wanted to get rid of him before the resistance had time to get on her long, fleshy tail over his capture. Well, Bisset wasn’t concerned about that. If the resistance wanted to get their poster fly boy back from his stronghold on Bastion, they were welcome to try. 

“Very well. We accept your terms,” he said, tapping his verification code into the contract on the data pad. “We’ll expect the first shipment of conscripts within the next 3 months. Lefev,” he turned to his lieutenant, “signal squad three to head down to the detention block, and bring this Poe Dameron up to see us. I’d like to get a look at him before we depart, if that’s acceptable, your eminence?” 

Ooltha laughed in the unpleasant manner common to Hutts, and nodded. “She says it would be her pleasure, General,” Jek said.

\--------------

Rey ignited her lightsaber, thumbing on both blades instead of just one. She didn’t use it this way very often, but she thought the more shocked and scared the troopers inside the cell block were, the more likely they would give up without too much of a fight. She shifted into an aggressive form and gathered the force around herself. “Okay. I’m ready.”

Azer nodded, and flicked his right hand in a strange gesture. Rose watched wide eyed from her place glued to the wall next to him as a long, narrow spine slid out of the warframe’s wrist. He inserted it into the lock on the door. After a few seconds the lock turned green, and the door slid open. Rey dove in as Finn raised the blaster rifle he’d liberated from one of the guards to cover her. Azer vanished and she felt a breeze of disturbed air pass next to her as he moved in as well. 

The storm troopers inside were caught so off guard that they barely had time to bring their blasters up. There were eight of them standing in the central control room, and Rey could sense at three or four more further back in the cell block. She reached out to the force to her and threw her hand forward, pushing the first line of troopers hard enough to send two of them tumbling completely over the console. 

The other two managed to keep their footing, and started shooting. Rey spun her saber, deflecting their shots back at them. One trooper took a shot to the shoulder and went down. Azer appeared on the far side of the room, and used his own force ability to knock the other four trooper’s weapons out of their hands. He kept his sword sheathed and instead used his throwing daggers, taking out three of them with precise strikes to joints and limbs, keeping his promise not to use lethal force. Rey swung her saber again, slicing two more troopers’ guns in half, and Finn came to stand next to her, taking aim with his rifle.

“Surrender and keep your lives!” he shouted, “or face the blade of the Last Jedi!” Rey winced, she hated that nickname. 

Still, it was often effective. The last three troopers, two of whom were still struggling to get up after being pushed over the console, raised their hands, dropping their blasters. Rose appeared behind Finn, looking over the computer terminal. 

Finn motioned to the troopers to gather in the corner, and then hit them with a stun blast from his rifle. Rose’s fingers flew over the keypad, “Let me see here...he’s in cell A-8!”

Rey nodded, looking down at the terminal. There were three rows of cells mapped on the screen: Poe was at the end of the central corridor. 

“I see it, come on,” she said, taking off down the hallway. Azer’s spiked boots clicked on the grated floor as he followed. “Finn, Rose, stay here and see if you can slow down any reinforcements that show up.”

\---------------

There was another trooper at the far end of the corridor who started shooting as soon as he saw them, but Rey reflected the bolts and caught him on the side with the ricochet. He collapsed to the floor, dropping his blaster. Azer leaped all the way down the corridor, picking up the blaster and tossing it to Rey, who sliced it in half with her saber.

She crouched down in front of the low cell door, and pointed at the lock. _That’s how you open it,_ she said, moving to give him room as he kneeled down next to her. He extended his wrist spine and shoved it into the port, then stepped back as the door slowly lifted up out of the floor: a feature to keep it from easily being broken into. _That...spine is useful_ , she said, watching as it slid back into his arm.

 _It allows Terrine to access computer systems and hack into them for me,_ he said, looking down at her lightsaber as she thumbed both blades off. _Your sword is an interesting weapon. I can block a projectile, but it takes a good deal of skill to send shots back at the attacker. Very effective._

 _Oh, well, thanks,_ Rey said, feeling that flush of pride again. She caught a hint of a strange emotion from him but didn’t have time to process it as the door slid into place and opened. Rey stepped down into the cell. Poe was against the back wall, crouched and ready for some kind of action. When he recognized Rey he relaxed and his face lit up with a grin. 

“Rey!” he said, hurrying to his feet and gathering her in a crushing hug, “are you a sight for sore eyes! Is Rose with you?”

Rey returned his embrace but quickly stepped back, turning for the door. “Yes, Rose and Finn are both here. But there’s a First Order general as well and we have to hurry.”

“Got it,” he said, going serious again as they stepped up out of the cell. His eyes widened as he saw Azer standing above them. “Who’s this?” he asked, looking over at Rey.

“This is Azer,” she said, “it...would take too long to explain, but basically he’s a force user who’s decided to help us. He doesn’t speak Basic though; he can only talk using the force.” The Tenno dipped his head and pressed his claws together in a respectful gesture. 

Poe nodded and clapped a hand on Rey’s shoulder. “If he’s here to help that’s all I need to know.”

As they turned to head back down the corridor, Rey felt the warning in the force and then all three of them heard the blaster fire. 

\---------------

The instant that the gunfire sounded, Azer felt something icy in his gut, and turned to leap back down the hallway. He would have vanished, but much to his chagrin he had exhausted his void core. It would be several minutes before he could channel any more energy. 

He wasn’t sure that it would have mattered anyway. There were at least a dozen of the white armored soldiers arrayed around the room and most of them now had their weapons trained on him. Rose was crouched behind the console: he wasn’t sure if the troopers had seen her yet. Finn, on the other hand, was kneeling on the floor in the middle of the room. Three of the soldiers had their blasters trained on him, and there was a charred spot high on the left arm of his jacket. 

One of them stepped forward, keeping his gun aimed at Finn, and said something. Azer didn’t understand the words, but the intent was clear. Don’t move or we shoot.

Rey and the human they had come to rescue, Poe, caught up to him and froze as well. He heard the man mutter something under his breath, a curse of some sort. Azer had to agree: this was not a good situation. 

_Rey, I can try to fight them, but_ _I can’t guarantee that I can stop them from killing your friend,_ he said.

 _Can you disappear?_ she asked, and he could sense that she was trying not to panic. 

_Unfortunately I cannot. I’ve exhausted my energy for the moment, although it will return._ The guard was talking again. Rey and Poe raised their hands, and Azer followed their lead. If no one was getting shot yet, maybe he’d get enough time to recover his void energy and then it would be a different situation. _I’ll let Skel know what’s happened. She might be able to help._

 _I think they’re taking us to see this general who you mentioned,_ Rey said, as three troopers walked up and looked them up and down. They seemed wary of him, standing far back from his claws and spines. They didn't try to take his weapons. They probably couldn't tell what they were looking at, seeing only a collection of spikes, armor plates, and mechanical parts. One of them motioned with his blaster and had them walk down to join Finn in the center of the room. Somehow they still hadn’t noticed Rose, who had moved so she was completely under the console. _Maybe we can find a way to escape once we’re out of this cell block._

 _Agreed,_ he said, and reached out to his sister. _Skel, what’s your status?_

After a moment she responded. _Azer, did you manage to recover the prisoner?_

 _Yes, but there’s been another complication,_ he said. _They captured one of the others and used him as a hostage. They’re taking all of us to see the master of this facility, so Rey and I are waiting for an opportunity to counterattack and escape._

The trooper who seemed to be in charge said something that sounded rude, and motioned towards the door. They filed out with blasters before and behind them, walking down a wide corridor towards a set of lifts.

 _That’s wise,_ Skel said. _I’m currently in an auxiliary server closet approximately two floors above you erasing security footage. Once I’m finished I’ll come to assist you._

He looked up at the wall next to the lift doors as they were prodded along by two troopers. There was no way it was large enough for all 12 troopers to get in with them. More importantly there was a symbol on a panel near the door. He had Terrine take a scan from his optical sensors and send it to Skel. _If you can find which lift is marked with this symbol, see if you can deactivate the security camera._

 _You’re thinking the same thing I am?_ Rey said, glancing at him and obviously trying not to smile.

 _If you’re thinking that this lift will provide an opportunity for escape, then yes,_ he said, catching some of her tense excitement. _Is your friend Rose going to be alright?_

 _I hope so,_ Rey said. _I made the troopers forget about her so she could hide, but I’m not sure she can escape on her own._

 _You made them forget?_ He said, catching himself before he turned his head to look at her. Four of the troopers followed them into the lift, positioning themselves with blasters trained on their prisoners. 

_Yeah, I just used the force to touch their minds and sort of...direct their thoughts away from her,_ she said.

She was just full of surprises. _There is a warframe that has some ability to influence minds, but nothing even close..._

 _Can we focus?_ Skel broke in. _I’ll have Xebu make contact with Rose’s comm and help her escape. Be aware that there’s a shuttle and a large detachment of troops parked on the landing pad on the roof, so climbing all the way up that lift shaft and escaping from there is not an ideal option._

 _We’ll figure something out,_ Rey said, _I’ll let you know if we manage to escape._

The doors slid closed, and it was just the four of them facing four soldiers. Perfect. These soldiers were more competent than the criminal guards, but they still had no idea what they were dealing with. Four regular soldiers against one Tenno was almost insulting.

 _Prepare yourselves,_ he sent to Finn and Rey. _You will only have seconds to act._

\-------------

Rose sat huddled in a supply closet. She wasn’t sure how she had managed to escape from the detention block without anyone seeing her, but she thanked the force for her good luck. Unfortunately now she found herself at a dead end. She couldn’t just go wandering around the facility with a blaster pistol hoping she didn’t run into any more storm troopers. 

Just as she was thinking that maybe it was time to try her luck anyway, her comm beeped.

“Hello? Rey?” she said, hoping that her friends had managed to escape. But an unfamiliar, mechanical male voice answered instead.

“Hello, Rose Tico is it? I am Xebu, Operator Skel’s ship cephalon. My mistress asked me to contact you.” Rose blinked. Well. That was unexpected.

“Skel the Tenno?” she said.

“Yes, that is correct. I am monitoring the facility’s security feeds, so I am aware of the approximate locations of most of the armed forces in the facility,” the computer answered. “I will do my best to find a safe route for you to escape.” 

“Oh, great. But what about Rey, Finn, Poe, and the other Tenno? They were captured.” She couldn’t just run and leave her friends behind.

“Operator Skel will assist with their escape, there is no cause for concern,” the cephalon said, sounding so unbothered it was hard for Rose to question his conviction. “Come, currently the hallway between this closet and a vent leading back down to the sublevel is clear. Time is of the essence.”

Rose raised her pistol and nodded. “Alright. Show me the way.”

\-------------

Rey felt her adrenaline rising as the lift climbed higher and higher. She could sense Finn was just as tense at her side. At least she still had her lightsaber. Everyone always searched for a blaster, but nobody ever seemed to know what a saber hilt was when they saw it. The troopers hadn’t even tried to take it away from her.

On her other side, Azer was intently focused inward. As they cleared another floor, she sensed his mind shift outward again, and the instant that he disappeared she was ready. 

The troopers all let out exclamations of shock, and she used their moment of distraction. Her saber’s amber blade flashed in a tight arc in front of her, disarming three of them before they knew what was happening. Finn launched himself at the fourth, who managed to get one shot off at the ceiling before he managed to slam the trooper’s helmet hard against the wall. Poe grabbed the blaster and trained it on the other three, stunning one of them. The other two seemed to slump over by themselves, and Azer reappeared behind them, one clawed fist still raised. 

They all stared at each other for a moment, then Azer lowered his arm and Rey shut off her saber. They’d succeeded at taking down their captors, but they were still trapped in this lift.

“Can we stop between floors?” Rey asked, as Finn looked at the control pad. He pressed something on the pad and the lift abruptly halted.

“So, what’s next?” Poe asked, relieving one of the fallen troopers of their blaster rifle.

“Well, our plan was mostly just to take out these four storm troopers and then figure something out from there,” Finn said, shrugging. “Sorry, we didn’t have that much time”

Poe grinned, pulling Finn into a tight embrace. “It worked perfectly. I’m so glad to see you, Finn.”

Rey gave them a minute, trying to hide her grin. They were almost unbearably adorable together. Meanwhile Azer had climbed up onto the wall and was inspecting the ceiling. 

_Can you use your blade to cut through here?_ he asked, tapping one of the light panels. _We can climb up to the next floor._

“Where do we go once we’ve gotten out of the shaft?” Finn asked, still holding Poe’s hand. 

_We will have to find another way out further down in the facility_ , Azer said. He shrugged his spiked shoulders. _It won't be easy, we'll have to be very fast to avoid being trapped again._

Poe frowned, looking between the three of them. “Look, I’m feeling a little out of the loop here. Can the three of you give me the whole situation we’re dealing with?” he said.

“Sorry,” Finn said, wincing. “Azer doesn’t speak Basic so we’ve been communicating using the force, we didn't mean to leave you out of the conversation.” He filled the other man in on their current situation, and Poe’s frown turned thoughtful.

“So basically we can risk trying to sneak back out through the facility...,” he began.

“I sense an ‘or’ coming,” Finn said, and Poe grinned.

“Well...there’s four of us here, and then the other one like him,” he pointed to Azer, “is somewhere nearby. It would be a long shot...but we could go up to the roof and steal the shuttle to escape.”

Even Azer seemed surprised by this suggestion. 

“Whoa whoa whoa, Poe!” Finn said. “There’s a whole squad of storm troopers up there, maybe more than a squad.”

“Yeah, and this guy and Rey took out nearly a whole squad when you came to rescue me,” Poe said, shrugging. “We don’t even have to fly it that far, we can just crash it in some junkyard and leave it for them to find while we head back to the transport and meet up with Rose." 

“Poe, I know that you're one of the best pilots alive, but I just don’t know about this idea...,” Finn started, but Rey found herself considering it. It would be a good way to escape without having to fight every trooper in the entire facility, but it still seemed incredibly risky. There was only one thing for it. She closed her eyes, and reached out to the force. This didn’t always work, but sometimes, she could sense the threads of possibility and feel which actions would ultimately lead to the best results. She focused on their path ahead and tried to feel if it would lead them to disaster.

She opened her eyes after a few seconds and nodded. “I agree with Poe’s plan,” she said, “I’m not sure that it’s going to be the easiest, but I can feel it in the force, it’s the right choice.” 

Poe grinned, and Finn ran one hand across his forehead. “I guess I can’t argue with that,” he said, “I will trust in the force.”

\-----------

Things had become tense in Ooltha’s dining room. When the commander of squad three had called up to tell Lt. Lefev that they had caught three intruders in the process of liberating the resistance leader, the Hutt and her enforcer hadn’t looked surprised. 

“At least you should feel reassured that this man is valuable to the resistance, and taking him into custody will be beneficial to your cause,” the creature said through her lackey. 

“You’re lucky that these rebels decided to stun my men instead of kill them,” Bisset said, “or I’d take the cost of replacing them out of your down payment.”

“We’ve lost more men than you today,” Jek snapped back, and the Hutt threw him an absolutely poisonous glare. Bisset raised one eyebrow.

“How is that? More activity you knew about but didn’t feel like sharing with us?” he was done with this nonsense. He hated dealing with these criminals. Back in the days of the Empire, he’d never have had to stoop to hiring slavers to recruit more storm troopers. He turned to his Lieutenant. “Lefev, signal the commander of squad three. Tell him to take the prisoners to my shuttle instead of bringing them here. I’ll see them once we’re on board the _Indomitable_ and I have them all safely restrained, and not before.”

“What about our arrangement?” Jek demanded, as Ooltha flicked her fleshy tail in perturbation. “You signed off already.”

“You’ll get your money, don’t worry,” he snapped, “but don’t expect to get the rest until we see some actual results. Three months, Ooltha. That’s what’s in the contract.” 

“Excuse me, Sir,” Lefev said, breaking in hesitantly, “but I can’t seem to get the commander of squad three on the comm…”

\-----------

After Rey had sliced open the ceiling of the lift with her saber, they’d discovered that there was an access ladder recessed into the wall of the lift shaft. As they made their way up, Finn tried to keep his anxiety under control. This was one of the crazier things they’d done, but then again, when were they not doing something crazy and dangerous? It was just part of life as a member of the resistance and, honestly, being Poe’s boyfriend. 

He glanced down at said dashing resistance pilot. Poe was a few rungs down from him with a stolen blaster slung across his back, hair slightly ruffled but still, somehow, perfect. The other man noticed his glance and flashed him a blinding grin. Finn felt his face heat up and he couldn’t help but smile. At least they were in this together.

When they reached the top Azer was waiting for them. He’d vaulted up into the darkness as soon as they’d left the lift, almost too quickly to see. He obviously didn’t need the access ladder.

“Okay,” Finn said, shifting his blaster rifle in his hands and hearing his heart pounding in his ears. “Azer, can you go out and scout, or are we kicking down the door?”

 _My void core has been replenished, I’ll see what the situation is,_ the Tenno said. He carefully opened the door, then disappeared. It clicked shut behind him. Finn assumed that his 'void core' was just how he referred to his available strength in the force, but really who knew?

“That’s an awfully handy trick,” Poe said, blinking. “Finn, Rey, where in the galaxy did you find this guy?” 

“It’s a long story,” Finn said. “Basically, you know how we were looking for Jedi artifacts?” 

Poe nodded. The trip had been partially his idea.

“Well,” Rey said, crouching down and getting her lightsaber ready, “basically, he’s a Jedi artifact, something called a Tenno. He and the other one, his sister, were asleep in hibernation pods, and he woke up when we came to his planet. They aren’t Jedi, but they can both use the force pretty effectively.” Finn noticed that Rey didn't mention the multitude of other Tenno on Azer's planet. It was probably best to keep that a secret: Azer had been pretty protective of them, it wouldn't be good to piss him off by talking about it, even with Poe.

“Wow,” Poe said. “You really hit the payload huh?”

“Maybe,” Finn said, “but they were asleep for so long...well, you’ll see once you have a chance to talk to them.”

 _I’ve finished investigating,_ Azer’s voice broke through his thoughts, _the situation isn’t ideal, but I don't think it's completely impossible. There are twenty four or so soldiers guarding the shuttle, maintaining a loose defensive formation, and three more guarding the main entrance to the roof. There isn’t much cover, but I think if Rey and I focus on defense, it might be possible for all of you to make your escape. However...I don’t think we can make it without killing at least some of them._

Finn nodded, he figured it might come to this. Sometimes you just didn’t have a choice. "Tell him that's Fine, Rey. I appreciate that he tried to avoid killing them up till now."

Rey laid a hand on his shoulder and shot him a sympathetic look. _If it’s what we have to do to survive, then we’ll just have to bear it,_ she sent to Azer.

 _I’ll be joining you soon_ , Skel dropped in to the communication. _But you should hurry: Xebu has detected a heavily armed force moving up the other lift. If they arrive before you do, you won’t be able to escape._

“Alright,” Rey said, thumbing on her lightsaber. Both of its golden blades flashed into existence. She looked between the three of them, and they all nodded. 

Finn raised his blaster and thumbed off the safety. “Time to be crazy and stupid again.”

\----------

They dove out the door onto the roof, Rey going first with Finn and Poe following close behind. The storm troopers noticed them almost immediately, and they were surrounded by a hail of blaster fire. Rey whirled her double blade, deflecting shots as quickly as she could. They made for the nearest piece of cover, a low vent opening, as Finn and Poe returned fire. The landing pad was huge, but the shuttle they were aiming for wasn’t too far away. Nar Uttana’s primary hadn't yet risen above the horizon, but the sky was the pale, hazy blue of approaching dawn. 

Azer appeared next to her as they crouched behind the vent cowling, sword already drawn, and caught a stray bolt on his blade before it could hit Finn. _We have to move,_ he said, _take out as many as you can but focus on getting to the shuttle._

She felt Finn’s acknowledgement in the force, and they started forward again. Azer and Rey focused on blocking as many bolts as they could, while Finn and Poe tried to take some of the troops out with their rifles. It was hard going: after a few minutes they were still at least 40 meters from the shuttle. Rey saw Azer flinch slightly, and she knew that he’d taken a hit. It didn’t seem to slow him down, but how much more could he take? For now the troopers seemed confident that their defense would slip up if they just kept shooting, but that might not last either. Rey felt a flash of heat as a shot skimmed past her leg. There was no more time.

As she dove sideways to catch a bolt that nearly found Poe’s head, Rey felt a weight shift against her back. She’d forgotten that she had filled her bag with scraps from the junkyard when they arrived. Originally she’d planned to take them back with her to use for parts...but maybe there was another way she could use them. Rey held her saber in one hand and reached down with her other to unclip her pack, a plan forming in her mind.

 _Azer,_ she said, _I’m going to try something, but I need your help. Otherwise I think we’re going to die. You have a gun as well as your sword, right?_

 _I have a reasonably powerful ballistic rifle,_ he said, flinching as he took another shot. _But I can’t shoot and defend at the same time. I'm willing to try anything at this point._

This would only work if they were perfectly coordinated. She’d read about a technique in the Jedi texts, long ago when she’d hoped to have a different partner to use it with, that let two Jedi share each other's senses and fight in perfect concert. She’d never had a chance to actually try it, but now was as good a time as any. She focused, and reached out to Azer’s mind. She passed through his warframe, feeling for his consciousness beyond it.

\----------

To Azer it felt like someone knocking on a door he hadn’t known existed in the back of his head. He could tell that it was Rey, though, so he opened himself to it. Whatever she wanted to try, he was willing to give it a shot. 

The effect was nearly instantaneous as her awareness flowed into his mind. Suddenly he could see the battle from her perspective as well: he could tell which shots she was going to block and which she would miss at the same time she did, and he found that he knew exactly what her plan was. He didn’t need to tell her that he could do it: she knew the moment he did. Acting on impulse, he opened up his void core, giving her access to his reserves of energy. He could feel her draw on it to restore her strength.

She lifted her arm and threw the bag of scavenged scrap metal into the air. Dropping his sword for a fraction of a second, he threw a dagger. It ripped the bag open and sprayed its contents into the air. As he picked up the defense again, Rey reached out with her void energy, and took hold of the spinning metal shards. 

She sent them swirling across the roof in a cloud of deadly shrapnel. The troopers cried out in alarm as they were bombarded, bits and pieces bouncing off their armor, and for just a moment they stopped shooting. Azer wasted no time, sheathing his sword and pulling out his rifle as Rey leapt into the center of her metal tempest and took down five troopers with one swing of her saber. Connected as they were, there was no risk of him hitting Rey with a stray shot, and he took down four more as she continued her insane charge. The troopers tried to stop her but most of their shots went wide as they staggered under her assault. 

_Go!_ she sent to Finn, _get the shuttle ready to get out of here!_ Finn nodded, motioned to Poe, and both of them took off, Poe still pausing to take a few more shots as he ran.

No longer needing to defend, Azer vanished again, reloading his rifle and joining Rey in the fray. They fought in perfect synchrony, and for a moment they both felt unstoppable. She deflected shots and sliced blasters out of their owner’s hands, and he dodged around the edge of the trooper's formation like a phantom, taking out any soldier who trained their rifle on her. He almost felt like he could sense who he needed to target before they even raised their weapon: was this awareness coming from her? 

It was only a moment, though, before the door to the other lift flew open, and more troopers poured out. It was taking a great deal of concentration for Rey to keep so many small objects airborne at once, and as a new wave of blaster fire washed over them she was forced to drop them to focus on defending herself. Metal chunks rained down on the rooftop as Azer reappeared next to her, his cloak of void energy dissipating as he put his rifle away and drew his sword again to aid her in defense. He felt Rey reach out to find Finn.

 _Finn, the reinforcements are here! Please tell me the shuttle is ready to fly,_ she said, hissing as a shot grazed her shoulder, leaving a dark burn. He felt her push the pain aside for the moment. 

_It's ready, just have to finish the pre-flight sequence,_ Finn sent back. _Get yourselves to the landing ramp if you can!_

There was still more trouble coming for them, though, as two of the newly arrived troopers caught Azer’s attention. He didn’t know what they were doing but Rey did: they were setting up a turbolaser turret. If they finished, they’d be able to blow a hole in the hull of the shuttle.

There was no way for them to stop it: Rey had drawn so much energy from him that his void core was nearly depleted again, and she was starting to falter in her defense. This state of combined awareness made them more powerful, but not enough to keep this up much longer. It was too bad he couldn't switch to a different frame. He loved using Loki, but it was meant for stealthy infiltration, not heavy combat.

He was at the edge of accepting that he would have to give up this warframe and throw himself into some kind of final suicidal charge, when a bolt of energy flashed down from above. The two troopers and their nearly assembled turbolaser were engulfed in blue fire. 

_Get on that Orokin-cursed ship NOW!_ Skel’s voice penetrated his mind, and he felt Rey's intense relief at her arrival. The other Tenno flashed overhead in her archwing, banking around and sending three more shots into the crowd of troopers. Azer and Rey wasted no time: she grabbed onto his arm and he launched himself backwards onto the waiting ramp of the shuttle.

 _Take off TAKE OFF!_ Rey sent to Finn, as they crouched on the landing ramp. He heard more shots from Skel’s heavy weapon as the platform lifted and sealed shut, and then felt the ship lift into the air.

\----------

Rey stayed crouched next to Azer for a long moment after they took off, slowly coming back to herself. She let the shared awareness she’d established between them fade, pulling herself out of his head even as he disappeared from hers. It was like coming down from some kind of insane high, and she realized as her breathing started to return to normal that he had been letting her use his own power as well as her own. That was the only way she'd had enough strength to control so many separate objects all at the same time while fighting. His senses were also more acute than hers, and for a moment she felt half deaf and blind. 

Fighting together like that, connecting with another force user...it was always something else. She'd had similar experiences before, but she put those memories out of her mind. She wasn’t going to think about that now. Anyway, this time she had been in control, and established contact herself for a specific purpose, so it was different. They'd been sharing senses and battle awareness, but it didn't go much deeper than that. 

Still, sharing senses with a warframe had been a rush. She’d never felt anything like it: no wonder he used it instead of his real body. 

_It seems we made it,_ he said, standing and brushing away a bit of shrapnel that had gotten caught on one of his spines. 

“Well,” she said, checking herself for any blaster burns, wincing at the dark mark on her arm. That would start to hurt soon. “We still have to get off the planet.”

 _True,_ he said, watching her. After a moment he continued. _That technique you used to link our senses, I...Tenno can’t do anything like that. It was...intense._ _  
_  
 _It was kind of a last-ditch effort,_ she said, _I wasn’t sure it was going to work, honestly, but it was...surprisingly powerful.  
  
I'd have to agree, _he replied. _We seem to make a good team._

She looked up at his frame’s faceplate and felt again the sense of someone looking at her from beyond it. When she’d fused their awareness together, she'd connected to the senses and power of his warframe. He was so completely merged with it that she hadn’t gotten even a hint of his real human body, even though she knew that he had one. For the first time, she found herself wondering what he actually looked like beyond the souless, biomechanical body he was inhabiting. She stared at him for a long moment, aware that he was staring back at her from somewhere, even if she couldn't see him. But then he turned his head away and the sensation faded. 

_We should...get to the cockpit_ , he said, scratching the back of his neck with one claw.

Rey nodded, looking down and feeling a strange sort of tension that she couldn't quite name as they made their way to the bow of the ship. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next time: Will they escape back to space in one piece? 
> 
> I took a bit more time putting up this chapter but it was mostly because I was working on later parts of the story and making sure the plot worked out okay. 
> 
> By the way, I might have mentioned this in another note, but the Tenno in this story aren't teenagers like in the game: some time passed before they went into stasis. If/when they appear in person, expect them to be around 21-25 years old in appearance.
> 
> And no hate for Loki, I like using him a lot, but he's no Rhino.


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Will our heroes escape from the First Order on their stolen shuttle?

By the time General Bisset arrived on the roof, it was all over. Dead or unconscious troopers littered the duracrete landing pad, there was shrapnel everywhere, and worst of all...

“Where is my shuttle!” He asked the troop commander, who had limped over and offered a shaky salute as soon as the general had stepped out of the lift.

“Sir,” the trooper said, “I regret to inform you that all of the resistance operatives were able to escape...by commandeering your shuttle.”

“And how was this allowed to happen, Commander?” Lt. Lefev said, giving Bisset a chance to control his temper.

“With respect, Sir and Madam,” he said, “had we been facing regular resistance troops we would’ve taken them into custody. However, we were facing known Jedi operative Rey Skywalker, and two completely unknown enemy units with extremely formidable weapons and combat capability.”

“Unknown units?” Bisset said, frowning. The fact that the Jedi had been here was bad enough. Had they found some new ally willing to throw in with their lost cause? 

“Yes, sir. They were wearing some kind of advanced battle armor and had capabilities I’ve never seen before in a ground unit. One of them seemed to have some sort of cloaking device that rendered it invisible to all sensors, even visual. The other had a personal flight system and was armed with what appeared to be a scaled down turbolaser.”

“Very well, Commander,” Bisset said, his anger fading. Clearly there had been many unanticipated variables that storm troopers couldn't be expected to account for on their own. “Gather as much information on these unknown units as you can, and see to your troopers.” He turned to Lefev, “Lieutenant, contact the _Indomitable_. We need a medical transport and a cleanup team, and I want a detachment of TIE fighters scrambled at priority 1 to take down that shuttle!”

\----------------------

“So what’s next?” Rey asked, sliding into the copilot seat next to Poe on the stolen shuttle. The city that covered most of the moon blurred past the forward viewport.

“Well,” he said, as Finn moved to sit in one of the passenger seats and Azer tried to wedge himself into the other, “I figure that they’ll almost certainly send something to chase us. We just want to..by the Force!”  
  
There was a screech of tortured metal as something landed on the nose of the shuttle. Poe stared in shock as a humanoid form wearing some kind of metal wings and carrying what looked like a scaled down turbolaser starred in through the viewport at him. After a moment it leaped off again. He checked his display: there was a sensor anomaly too small to be another ship keeping pace with them at a distance of about 20 meters. 

He looked over at Rey, who didn't look very surprised. “What the Kriff was that!?” he asked the room in general.

The Tenno tilted his faceplate, which Poe now realized didn’t actually have eyes, towards Rey, and she nodded. 

“That’s just the other Tenno, Skel,” Rey said. “Azer says that she has an upgrade to her flight system so she can keep pace with the shuttle.” She looked over at the alien again, presumably having a conversation via the force. “He says that since the shuttle doesn’t have any weapons, she’ll shoot down anything small chasing us.”

Poe’s targeting sensor started beeping urgently, making a great counterpoint to their conversation. “Well I hope TIE fighters are small enough for her to hit, because we’ve got three inbound.” He adjusted his aileron tilt and increased engine power slightly, then transferred everything but flight control to Rey’s console. “Anyway, don’t worry. We only have to outrun them long enough to ditch this ship. Then we can disappear into the city and find our way back to the transport and Rose.”

\----------------------

Skel flipped over in mid air as her visual sensors picked up approaching unknown units. Three small vessels, probably fighters, were coasting towards them at high speed. As they flew, they emitted an eerie high pitched whine, almost like a scream.

 _Azer’s what’s going on in there?_ she asked, glancing over at the shuttle. 

_I’m only partly appraised of our current plan_ , he replied. _The human who has no void affinity, Poe Dameron, is flying the shuttle. You should probably switch to coms so he can talk to you._

“Xebu, can you patch me in to the Shuttle’s communications using Terrine’s translation algorithm?” she said. Her archwing’s ailerons automatically adjusted to keep level with the shuttle as it dove low over the buildings of the surrounding city. 

“Connection established, Operator Skel,” Xebu replied.

“Shuttle Pilot, this is Tenno Skel,” she sent. “What is the plan?”

“Nice to meet you, Skel,” the man’s voice answered on her internal comm. “This shuttle is too conspicuous to try to escape with. Currently I’m planning to crash it somewhere a few klicks away, then we can escape on foot into the city and make our way back to Rose's ship.”

“I assume that you’d prefer not to be shot down by the approaching enemy fighters first.” She checked to see if they were close enough for her to get a targeting solution. Not yet, but soon.

“Actually,” Poe said, “that’s not a bad idea. They might think we were killed in the crash and break off attacking. Do you think you can leave one alive to report back that we were destroyed?”

Skel took a moment to consider it. She didn’t like leaving enemies alive, but it was a good plan and would give them time to find a secluded spot to summon their landing craft. 

“I should be able to,” she said, “just make sure that you don’t take critical damage. Azer won't be able to rescue more than one of you if the shuttle explodes in mid air.” 

“Don’t worry, this isn’t my first party,” he said confidently, and she would have rolled her eyes if she had any at the moment. “Poe Dameron, out.”

The enemy fighters started shooting before they were in range of her cannon, but the shuttle expertly dodged and weaved to avoid them. They were strangely shaped ships: everything in this world was strangely shaped. Blocks and polygons with no aesthetic at all. The Orokin who created her might have been monsters but at least they were monsters with class.

Her HUD indicated that she was in range. She took aim and Larkspur’s blue lightning split the pre-dawn gloom, hitting two of their pursuers. One of the fighters’ delicate wings was blown off, and it spun wildly out of control, tumbling off to crash in the city below. 

The other fighter was smoking but still flying. Clearly sensing that their life was about to end, they fired wildly at the shuttle, unable to get any kind of target lock on Skel. Their old enemy, the Grineer, had eventually learned how to target something as small as a Tenno with an archwing, but these fighters were probably optimized for shooting larger ships. 

As the enemy let out a spray of laser fire, the shuttle maneuvered in a strange sort of waggle. It dodged most of the fire, but took a solid hit to the right aileron. A few seconds later something exploded, and it started coasting down.

 _Azer, you okay?_ she sent. There was no point distracting the pilot if he was trying to make a crash landing, but she couldn’t resist checking in on her brother.

 _Yes,_ he replied. _Poe seems to have things under control: I believe the explosion was in some area of the ship that isn’t part of the propulsion system._

She nodded, checking the status of her weapon. Larkspur was recharged: she fired twice this time. The first shot hit the damaged fighter and it exploded in a ball of fire. Her second shot blew a few hull plates off the third fighter, which was only now at the very edge of her range. Instead of shooting at the shuttle, the pilot of the third fighter apparently decided that Skel was the bigger threat, and tried taking a few shots at her. Their targeting was no better, but even so she broke away from the shuttle and jetted off over the city. 

“One fighter remains,” she said over the comm, “but they have decided to try targeting me and I must retreat. Good luck.”

The pilot didn’t respond but Azer did. _He is too focused on not destroying us to respond, but the message has been received._

 _Good luck, brother,_ Skel replied. _Try not to let your warframe be destroyed: bail out if you have to._ She tucked in her ailerons and dove into a deep alley between two buildings. There was no way any kind of flying craft could follow her. By the time she had disengaged from her archwing, Xebu had the location of Rose’s ship up on her HUD, and she set off. 

\--------------------------

Things were tense in the cockpit of the shuttle as they careened down towards the empty pit that Poe was aiming for. The single fighter that Skel hadn’t destroyed was still shooting at them and they were rapidly losing power and maneuverability. Even as Rey clutched the arm of the copilot seat with one hand and adjusted engine power with the other, there was a crash and then another explosion rocked the ship. 

Poe managed to recover from the blast, but the ground was coming up to meet them very quickly. Rey could feel her seat move slightly as Azer dug his claws into the back of her headrest, bracing for impact. Reaching out to the force, she pulled together as much focus as she had left. She was too exhausted to slow their descent, but she could at least try to keep them from all being killed by the impact.

It was still a near thing. They were hit one more time as the ship plowed into a huge pile of duracrete chips. Engine containment alarms started screaming as the forward viewscreen buckled inward. Fortunately the transparisteel was designed to bend rather than shatter like glass, but Poe came inches from slamming his head into the twisted metal. The second they stopped Azer tore himself free of his crash webbing and then sliced Rey’s open with one of his small daggers as Poe and Finn both unbuckled theirs as well. 

“What is that alarm!” Finn said as they all headed for a side entrance that was hopefully not buried in debris from their crash landing. 

“Don’t think just go!” Poe said, grabbing the escape hatch lever and pulling, but it seemed to be lodged. Rey pushed him aside and drew power from the force, flinging it at the door. She would have been lying if she said that she wasn’t using her fear of death to power herself as she ripped the bulkhead off its mounting, and a skitter of blue sparks raced along the edge of the metal. A small avalanche of dirt and debris started pouring in: Azer tapped her shoulder and she moved out of his way.

The warframe waded into the dirt and used his superior strength and claws to dig through the crushed duracrete until he had cleared an opening. He climbed up to the surface and vanished from sight.

 _There’s still a thick dust cloud from the crash, hurry!_ he said, and Rey scrambled to follow. She felt Azer’s invisible hand grab her arm to hoist her up, and she used the force to help Finn and Poe scramble up behind her. The three of them took off running through the abandoned lot. Rey could see varies pieces of derelict construction equipment emerge through the dust as they ran. 

She felt a warning ripple through the force, and almost without thinking reached out and shoved Finn and Poe behind a decaying rock mover that was half buried in dirt. She focused on putting up a shield around them to block concussive force as there was an ear-shattering sonic boom from behind them. The shuttle’s reactor core had exploded. She could feel the last of her reserves draining away as the power of the explosion pushed against her will, but she managed to hold firm. 

As they all huddled behind the bulk of the vehicle she felt a hand on her shoulder and looked over. Poe was grinning, despite a significant gash that had already started bleeding on his cheek. 

“I just want you both to know,” he said, looking between her and Finn, “that you’re my favorite people to almost die with.”

Finn started smiling as well, and Rey couldn’t help but join in. He was right: no matter what, it was always better to be together. 

_Rey, Finn,_ she heard Azer’s voice sharply in her head: he was reaching hard to find them. _Are you alright?_

 _Yes, Azer, we’re all fine,_ she said. _What’s your status?_

The warframe appeared a few meters away, crouching in the shelter of a chuck of duracrete that hadn’t been broken down into chunks yet.

 _I'm unharmed,_ he replied. Somehow Rey wasn't surprised. He could move almost impossibly fast. Strangely, she found that she was glad that he'd stayed close by.

Poe stumbled to his feet, brushing dust and dirt off his pants and then helped Finn and Rey up as well. Rey felt her head swim a bit as she stood up, but it passed quickly. She knew that she wouldn’t be able to use the force to stop any more explosions today, though. 

“Alright,” she said, “let’s go find Rose and the ship and get the kriff off this sith-forsaken moon.”

\-------------------------

It took another half hour to make their way through the dilapidated city that occupied most of the surface of Nar Uttana. Finally they reached the berth where Rose had left the carrier that she and Poe had arrived on. Azer’s warframe had some kind of HUD built into its optics that made the trip faster than it would otherwise have been. Even so, by the time they reached the alley across the street from their destination, the moon’s thin, pale dawn was breaking above them. Finn keyed in Rose’s comm frequency and tried for the third time to reach her. As before, there was no response.

He frowned and looked at the others. “I’m concerned that she isn’t answering.”

 _I could try to break in and see what the situation is,_ Azer said. _I can probably find a vent that isn’t sealed._

Rey squinted, looking hard at the security door they were debating breaking open. Finn could feel that she was reaching out to the force, but not what she was doing with it.

“I’m pretty tired so it’s hard to focus,” she said, “there’s definitely more than just one person in there. But..not more than 7? I’m pretty sure one of them is Rose, though.” She sighed, resting her hands on her knees. Azer turned his head to look at Finn, then back at Rey. Finn thought he understood what the Tenno was thinking. Rey was really pushing herself. 

There was a thump behind them and Finn whipped his head around, but it was only Skel. She walked up to stand next to her brother, and they briefly clasped claws in greeting. With both of the Tenno they should be able to deal with whoever was in there. The question was Rose’s safety. Finn sighed, shaking his head.

“You know what? I don’t know about the rest of you but I’m too tired to think of anything clever right now," he said, pulling out his blaster rifle and resting it against his shoulder. "They haven’t killed Rose yet so they must want something. Let’s just go in and see what it is. If they want to shoot us, Azer can always turn invisible and grab Rose." He sensed Rey repeating his question to the Tenno.

 _I can already be invisible before we go in_ , Azer said. _I should be able to liberate your friend if I need to. I won’t let anyone else be captured._ Finn was surprised at the shame that he could feel from the other man: he sensed that the Tenno blamed himself for Finn getting caught and turned into a hostage back at the prison. He tried to project his lack of hard feelings, but he wasn't sure if Azer got the message or not.

Poe looked between all of them, clearly having trouble keeping up with a conversation he could only hear part of. “Okay so we’re just going in?”

Rey and Finn both nodded. “I’ll open the door,” Rey said, igniting her lightsaber. She stepped out of the alley and strode across the street. Finn, Poe, and Skel followed as Azer disappeared. 

_You can’t vanish like that?_ Rey asked Skel. The Tenno shook her head.

 _No, this warframe model is built for heavy combat. Azer’s model is intended for stealth and infiltration,_ Skel replied. _That is why he had difficulty openly fighting against such a small number of enemies._ Finn felt his eyes widen at that. A small number of enemies? He filed that information away as something to remember. 

Rey made short work of the security door with her saber, and the five of them went in. 

\-------------------

The berth was totally empty as they approached the landing ramp of the battered old transport, but now that they were this close, Finn could sense what Rey had felt from outside: there were definitely more people inside it than just Rose. He raised his blaster and glanced at the others. Rey and Poe nodded and Skel pulled out some kind of ornate pistol. Presumably Azer was armed and somewhere nearby as well. 

Rey went first up the ramp, saber at the ready, with Finn only a few steps behind. They both froze at the scene before them. There were four stormtroopers arrayed around the room, and a fifth trooper had a firm grip on Rose’s shoulder, their blaster pressed against the side of her head. Everyone stared at each other for a few seconds. Skel clicked the chamber of the gun she was using, and Finn kept his blaster rifle steady on the trooper holding Rose. He felt his nerves fraying as the standoff continued.

“I’ve had a long kriffing night,” Fin said, his patience finally shattering, “so why don’t you tell me what the kriff you’re doing here, before I blow your head off your shoulders for threatening my friend.”

The troopers all looked at each other, then to Finn’s surprise slowly lowered their blasters. The leader let go of Rose, who gave him a reproachful look and walked over to stand next to Poe. 

“Are you FN-2187?” the trooper asked, turning his helmet towards Finn.

“I...might have once gone by that name,” Finn said, lowering his blaster slightly. Where was this going?

The trooper who had spoken looked at the others and they all nodded. “In that case,” he said, dropping his blaster and raising his hands, “the five of us all surrender.” The other troopers also dropped their blasters.

Finn almost dropped his blaster as well. “You’re...what?”

The troop leader pulled off his helmet. He was very young, maybe not even 17, with thick dark hair and a grim expression born of years of service that Finn knew all too well. “Basically...we want to defect and join the resistance.”

\-------------------------------

Finn, Poe, and Rose took charge of the troopers, making them take off their outer armor and collecting their weapons. Azer appeared next to Rey and two of the troopers flinched violently, staring at him.

 _They’re deserters?_ he asked. It seemed like that was what had just happened, but since he couldn’t understand the conversation, he couldn’t be certain.

 _Pretty much,_ Rey said. _I guess they wanted to make sure we didn’t shoot them on sight. This isn’t the first time this has happened, storm troopers showing up to surrender because they think they have a chance at getting away from the First Order. They’re always nervous and suspicious at first._

 _It seems that our caution wasn’t necessary after all, then,_ he said. _You were right about sparing their lives: these five are barely adults._

 _They remind me of us a bit,_ Skel said, holstering her pistol. _We were younger, of course, but I know that grim look._ She turned her head towards Rey. _Are you all going to be alright, or will you need assistance leaving this moon?_

Rey was thoughtful for a moment, biting her lip. Azer found himself idly thinking that it was rather cute.

 _I think we’ll be fine?_ she finally said. _This transport is a lot beefier than the shuttle we were just flying and I bet that our new friends can help us avoid the star destroyer that’s probably in orbit somewhere. But where are you two going?_

 _We will leave via our landing craft,_ Skel said. _It is the safest way for us to return to our orbiters._

Rey nodded. _It’s too bad that all of us can’t escape in a stealthy landing craft, but honestly I’d rather not be stuffed into one again,_ she said. _I’ll let you know when we get back up to where we stashed the Falcon._

Azer nodded. _Please reach out if you find yourselves in danger again. We will try to find a way to help you, if we can._

 _Thank you,_ Rey said, _really...thank you both for helping us get Poe back. I don’t think we could have done it without you._

 _We are Tenno,_ Skel said. _A mission like this is what we are built for. We are happy to be of service._

 _Good luck,_ Azer said, and both Tenno gave her a short bow before departing.

\------------------------------

Despite their fears, they were able to make it back to the Falcon without further incident. There were a few tense moments as they waited for their departure codes to be confirmed, but the lead trooper, whose name turned out to be DX-4326 (Dex? Dix? They would have to think of something) had supplied them with a clearance code that wouldn’t arouse suspicion. 

Apparently he and his team had been assigned to go check the site of the shuttle explosion, and had seen it as an opportunity too good to pass up when they realized that the resistance members had escaped the crash. 

“We’ve all heard of you,” he’d said to Finn, “so we knew that if there was anyone in the resistance who would be willing to give us a chance, it would be you. When we saw that your team was leaving people injured, but still alive, we knew that the stories were true. AC-4143 here,” he'd pointed at one of the other troopers, a young girl with dark red hair and a lot of freckles, "Is great at slicing and she found the ship we thought was probably yours, then deleted the record from the docking yard's logs."

They also had a large amount of intel on the current situation with the First Order, which they were willing to share with the resistance. DX and his team apparently worked for someone named General Bisset, who was the same prestigious person who had come to visit Ooltha and was trying to buy Poe from her. The resistance knew of at least three other "Generals" who had appeared during the last year, but this name was new. Poe probably would have spent more time interrogating the troopers, but he and Rey were the most skilled pilots on board, and so they both had to focus on flying the ship.

They took as circuitous a path as they could back to the edge of the system, and a few hours later they’d reached the location where the Falcon was hidden. It was decided that Finn and Poe would stay on the transport with three of the defectors, and two would go with Rey and Rose on the Falcon. The troopers quickly agreed to the arrangement: Rey could sense that they were trying hard to win Finn's trust. The two coming with Rey and Rose agreed to be locked in to one of the passenger compartments while Rey and Rose were in the cockpit. Rose left some rations for them before locking the door. 

As she slid into the Falcon’s pilot seat, Rey took one last look back at Nar Uttana's primary. From their current position, the moon was too small to see.

“If I ever set foot on Nar Uttana again,” she said, as Rose dropped into the copilot seat next to her, “It’ll be too soon.”

“I take it your adventures were unpleasant at best, mistress” EVX-4 said from his station at the back of the cockpit. “I heard some details from the Tenno ships' computers, as we have been exchanging more language data.”

Rose’s eyes lit up “Their ships both have a self-aware onboard computer system?”

“Don’t get your hopes up,” Rey said. “They’re very secretive about their equipment: even me and Finn haven't been allowed to board one of their ships yet and they sort of trust us.”

She leaned back a bit, stretching her arms over her head. After they made the jump to hyperspace she was going to have a good long nap. She reached out with her senses in the force, and quickly found Azer’s mind. He was not far away, but of course she had no idea where his ship actually was.

 _You made it back safely,_ he said, relief coloring his sense in the force.

 _At least one thing went right with this whole escapade_ , she sent back, sighing. _Poe and Finn are in the transport: once they have an astrogation solution, I’ll send it to Terrine._

 _Perfect._ He hesitated for a moment, then went on. _I know that this has all been something of a misadventure but...I’m glad we were able to help._

Rey grinned, even though she knew that he couldn't see it. _Thanks again for coming along. We really couldn't have succeeded without you and Skel, but I hope that we can show you more than just fighting and the galaxy’s seedy underbelly soon._

 _I’ll look forward to it_ , he said, and the connection faded out. Rey glanced over to find that Rose was looking at her strangely. 

“Were you talking to the Tenno just now?” Rose said, frowning.

“I was letting Azer know that we’re all safe and ready to go,” Rey said, “why?”

Rose blinked slowly, then leaned back in her seat. “No reason. Just curious.” She sounded way too casual for that to be true, but Rey let it go as the com lit up. 

"You ready to go?" Finn's voice came across. He sounded more relaxed than he had for a while. He must be happy to be traveling with Poe again.

"I certainly am. Send me the coordinates so we can all get out of here," she replied. The astrogation data came up on her screen, and Rey transmitted it along to the Tenno. Both of their computers sent back confirmation.

“Alright, let’s go home,” Rey said, pulling back on the hyperdrive lever and sending them hurtling off into space once more.

\----------------------------

Lt. Shinee Lefev frowned as she looked through the latest report from the troop commander at her station on the _Indominable’s_ bridge. General Bisset was pacing theatrically back and forth at the aft of the command deck, doing, she thought, a pretty terrible Grand Moff Tarkin impression. She carefully pushed the thought aside. She knew better than to entertain mutinous ideas about a commanding officer. That was how you eventually slipped up and got killed, or worse, demoted.

“Sir, the final report has come in from Commander ZD-1247” she said, and he strode over.

“Let’s hear it then,” Bisset said, folding his arms imperiously.

“Well...it’s not good Sir,” she said, bracing for his reaction. “In total we had 31 troopers killed outright, and a good 34 more casualties who needed treatment in the medical bay. In addition we lost 2 TIE fighters, and your command shuttle. Also…” she swallowed, he was going to like this the least, “It seems the team that was sent to investigate the crashed shuttle reported in that the resistance operatives had perished in the blast...but that team failed to report back to our mobile base of operations down on the moon and is presumed to have been killed or…defected.”

Bisset frowned and clenched his hand into a fist. “Are you saying,” he began, his voice alarmingly quiet, “that there is a chance that the resistance prisoners escaped with a group of defectors?”

Lefev looked down, doing her best to appear small and inoffensive. “It would seem so, Sir.”

Bisset clenched his teeth and glared off at the forward viewport, but managed to control his temper. “Well. We will just have to review discipline with all of the storm trooper squads one more time. What of the two unknown units that were observed assisting the resistance, did we acquire any new data on them?”

“Commander ZD-1247 included a full list of all observations his teams made of them. Honestly sir,” she said, risking looking up, “it’s quite the list. I’m no expert but...if I was to make a guess, I would say they are both some sort of force-users. The troop commander obtained a video feed of one of them breaking into the main entrance of Ooltha’s facility, probably as some kind of diversion.” She pulled the video up and Bisset bent down to watch a grainy feed showing the alien combatant crushing Ooltha’s troops and walls as though they were both made of paper.

“More accursed Jedi!” Bisset snarled. “They’ve always been the thorn in our heel, Lieutenant. This is worse than I thought.”

He was silent for a moment, staring out at the moon hanging in space far below them and thinking.

“Well,” he finally said, “if Rey 'The last Jedi' isn’t actually the last, as would seem to be the case, I have an idea for our next move.” He looked down at Lefev, “Lieutenant, recall all of our forces from Nar Uttana, and set a course for the Miskalla system, sector 21-R43.”

“At once, sir,” Lefev said, transmitting his orders to the helm. “If I might ask, what is in the Miskalla system?”

Bisset grinned. “A weapon that has been waiting to be used for a very long time.”

\-----------------------------------------

They had made their first course correction, but they had two more stops and a few days of travel through hyperspace before they’d arrive safely back in their corner of the outer rim. Rey found she didn’t have much to do besides read some of the Jedi books she’d brought with her. Rose was busying herself with repairs and going through all the data that Azer had managed to steal from Ooltha’s computer system, and they'd decided to wait on interrogating the defecting troopers until they reached their destination. Poe and Finn had mostly stayed on the transport, and were still...occupied with celebrating their reunion.

She sighed, feeling a familiar melancholy come over her. She wasn’t jealous just…Finn and Poe had gotten together officially a few weeks after the chaos of Exegol. They deserved to be happy and she was glad that they were, but during that first month, whenever she saw them together, all she could think of was that she could have had that same happiness, if only...

She closed the book she’d only been half paying attention to. She had already drowned herself in too many if only’s. She couldn’t keep doing this to herself.

Stretching out with the force, she reached out to see if Azer was awake. Terrine had mentioned that both Tenno spent a great deal of time sleeping or resting in a sort of trance while they were traveling through hyperspace, and neither had been very talkative over the last few days. 

_Rey?_ Azer sent back, and she sensed that although he hadn't been asleep, he was close to it: his mind was hazy and unfocused. 

_Long void translations always have this effect on me,_ he said, sensing her thoughts, _it’s hard to describe_ _. I don't mind talking now, though,_ he added quickly.

She didn't want to disturb him if he was resting, but she needed some distraction from her gloomy thoughts. Also, if she was being honest with herself, he was just interesting to talk to. 

_Azer, I have a question for you,_ she finally said _, but it might be too personal. You don’t have to answer if you don’t want to._

He didn’t say anything but his sense in the force was receptive. Rey plowed ahead. This had been on her mind ever since they’d left Nar Uttana. 

_How does someone become a Tenno?_

He woke up a bit more at that, but didn’t answer for a while. Rey thought that maybe he wasn’t going to, but finally his thoughts seemed to clear. 

_This is something we don’t usually tell outsiders,_ he finally said, _but since you also have the power of the void, I will make an exception._

 _There was...an accident, on a ship that was traveling to start a new colony,_ he began. _Most of the people on it were dead when it was finally recovered. Those who survived, who were all very young, still children, had been changed by so much exposure to the void. We were examined and it was found that we had gained a strange power. After it was discovered that this void power was dangerous and hard to control, we were put into permanent stasis._

Rey could sense that this “permanent stasis” was basically the same as death in his mind. She tried to send sympathy through the force to him. 

After a moment he continued. _Later it was discovered that we could use our connection to the void to control a remote body, and we were allowed to use the warframes to be elite soldiers for the Orokin, the class of people who ruled at that time. I suppose we are not very different from your friend Finn: when you expect to spend the rest of your life in a hibernation pod, the promise of having any kind of life at all is too much to refuse._

He was quiet for a moment but Rey sensed that he was thoughtful rather than distressed: these were very old memories for him that didn’t hurt much any more. She wasn’t sure _what_ she thought: the whole story was too strange for her to really comprehend. There were definitely things he wasn’t telling her, but she could tell that what he had said was true. 

_I’m sorry,_ she finally said. _When Finn was explaining how people become storm troopers, I sensed that you felt some empathy for them, but I didn’t realize...that it was something like that. Thank you for telling me, though._

 _Well,_ he said _, it was a long time ago._ _You and Finn have the same power we do, what you call the Force, so I feel like you should know our story. I don’t know how Tenno and Jedi are connected, but I feel we must be kin in some way. It’s...a relief to see people touched by the void living such free lives, after everything the Orokin made us endure as their soldiers._

 _Is that why you and Skel were willing to help us and fight Ooltha?_ she said, pieces suddenly connecting in her mind, _because you feel sympathy for other people who are forced to serve?_

 _It is,_ he said _, the Orokin had other servants besides us who had no freedom at all, people who weren’t even free to have their own thoughts. We couldn’t find a way to help them back then, so, many of us feel it’s our duty to help anyone we find in similar situations._

He was quiet for a moment, then continued. _Sometimes, we become too focused on our missions and forget that a slaver’s servants may also be slaves. Mercy is always the better option, even when it may send you down a more difficult path. You reminded me of that, when you stopped me from killing those soldiers. It was the right decision, and not just because it led that group of deserters to us._

Rey wasn’t sure what to say. She hadn’t expected him to apologize for arguing with her. Honestly she didn’t know why she’d been so firm about him not killing any storm troopers: eventually they’d been forced to use lethal force to escape anyway. She supposed that she was just tired of all the senseless death and had reached a point where she couldn’t just watch it happen and constantly brush it aside. 

_We all forget what we’re fighting for sometimes,_ she finally said, trying to make some of her emotions clear to him.

 _Hmm,_ he sent back, and she could tell that he had sensed what was behind her words. _I would be happy to continue talking, Rey, but the void pulls me down: I am going to return to sleep for a time. Good night._

 _Good night,_ as the connection faded out she found that she was feeling sleepy as well. She pulled up the bunk blanket and soon slipped into her own dreams.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next chapter: The Tenno meet some folks who aren't trying to shoot them for a change.
> 
> What will they wind up naming all these deserting storm troopers? Rey will have to get creative.


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm sorry it took me so long to post this: I was very sick for a few weeks. 
> 
> There's some significant headcannons/loose interpretation of lore in this chapter, just fyi.

After days of void translations, Azer was more than ready to escape his orbiter. All of his equipment had been completely repaired and there was nothing that he could offer Terrine any meaningful assistance with. He could have gone back into his somatic link and sunk into an extended void meditation, but he was tired of sleeping. To help him pass the time, Terrine had prepared a file on the common language that most people spoke, which was called Basic. He had also started working on reconditioning his true body which was going as well as could be expected. When he’d opened up his link chair after they returned from Nar Uttana and tried getting up, he’d only managed 4 or 5 steps before he had to sit down: Terrine had to send some repair drones to help him get back into his chair. Now, several days later, he could walk all the way to his personal room without assistance, but it would be some time before he could use transference in combat.

Not that he knew when the next time he would see combat would be, but it would come sooner or later. After the end of the mission to rescue Poe Dameron, he and Skel had reached some conclusions. They both agreed that Rey and Finn were honorable, trustworthy people: neither Tenno felt that there was any reason to suspect them of some deceit. However, they still weren’t sure about any of the others who surrounded them.

Now they were on their way to the Resistance’s base of operations, which was apparently on the fourth moon of a gas giant called Yavin. Neither of them were certain what they would find there, but they were both relatively confident that neither Jedi would try to force them to stay if they didn’t wish to, and that no one else would have the power to do so. After they had seen what this Resistance was all about, they would decide on their next move.

Currently, Azer was kneeling on the floor of his room looking through various storage compartments to see which of his personal items had survived his extremely long period of hibernation. His warframe Loki sat nearby: inevitably he would run out of stamina and need to carry his body back to his chair.

As he was counting through a box of Amber Stars, he felt another mind reaching out to him: Rey was trying to talk. After her initial bout of curiosity about Tenno origins, she had started reaching out to him fairly often, probably trying to escape from the same boredom he was feeling. It had quickly turned into one of the more pleasant parts of this journey, as he found that he liked talking to her. He’d told her some stories about his days in the origin system, fighting against the Corpus and the Grineer, and she’d told him about some further details of recent history. Not so much about her own, personal history though: he sensed that she'd been through some dark times that she wasn't willing to talk about. 

Honestly, ever since she had linked her mind to his back on Nar Uttana, he found himself more and more curious about her. He’d be lying if he said that he wasn’t looking forward to seeing her in the flesh again when they arrived at their destination. He smiled and reached back, letting her connect to him.

_Hello, Rey,_ he sent, leaning back and resting his shoulders against the wall. 

_I see you’re awake_ , she said, and he could sense that she was glad she hadn’t woken him up. 

_Yes, I’ve been cleaning out some of my storage compartments,_ he said. _It’s good exercise._

_Well,_ she said, and he could sense her putting aside some curiosity. She was always curious when he was doing something without using a warframe. _I wanted to let you know that in another hour or so we’re going to be arriving at our destination. I don’t know about you, but I can’t wait to get off this ship and breathe some non-recycled air again._

_It has been a long journey,_ he agreed. _I’m curious to see this settlement that you and your comrades have created. It’s built in the remains of a much older military installation, you said?_

_That’s right,_ she said, _you’ll see when we get there, it's an interesting place._

_I’ll let Skel know to prepare herself, although her Cephalon, Xebu, is very punctilious so she probably already knows._ He felt himself sliding down the wall a bit, and had some difficulty getting back upright. It was time for him to return to his link chair. _I’ll be in touch via comms when we transfer back into normal space._

_See you soon!_ she sent, and the connection faded out. 

He focused his mind and fell down into himself, seeking the link that would lead him out of his own flesh. His vision cleared as he merged with Loki, and he found himself looking down at his own body. It was always strange seeing himself this way, especially since the part of him that was the warframe saw his human body as a separate, weaker being that it needed to protect. His eyes weren’t even closed, just staring blindly off into space. 

He bent down and carefully picked himself up, then started towards the central section of the orbiter where his somatic link was located. It was time to prepare for the next step in this strange adventure. 

\------------

Rey nearly ran down the exit ramp when they finally touched down on the landing pad, even with a heavy pack slung over her shoulder. Once her feet were on solid ground again, she took a moment to just breath in the humid air and feel the life force of Yavin IV all around her. Whatever feelings she had about living in the resistance base here, there was something about this moon she just couldn’t help but love.

Originally, there had been some thought of staying on Ajan Kloss and establishing the beginning of a new government there. However, by the time Rey had returned from Tatooine, some political shift had occurred, and the Resistance had split off into two separate groups. Some, including most of the older commanders and captains, had gone to assist with reforming the government on a world closer to the Core. However, another group, under the command of Generals Poe Dameron and Finn, had come here to the abandoned base on Yavin IV. Apparently Poe had lived here when he was a boy, and he felt there was something symbolic and nostalgic about returning.

He had reluctantly asked Rey if she wanted to part ways and return to Ajan Kloss, since that had been where Luke Skywalker had tried to establish his Jedi training school, but that didn’t feel right to her. Luke’s attempt to revive the Jedi order had not ended well, and when she was finally ready to start teaching others, she wanted a completely fresh start. Besides, everyone she wanted to be near in the whole galaxy was here. What good would she do alone in a ruin filled with the broken dreams and lost hopes of people she had never known?

Rose walked down the Falcon’s ramp behind her and took a moment to stretch. “Oh wow am I glad to be back,” she said. “That wasn’t exactly the most fun adventure.”

“It could have been worse,” Rey said, and Rose just rolled her eyes. EVX-4 trundled down to them, pushing his sensor package. “Can you take that down to Tech Ops, Evix?” she said, handing the droid her bag. “Let them do a full analysis, but I’d like them to keep the results sealed until I have a chance to look it over. If you can just drop my pack off at my quarters, I won’t need you for anything for the rest of the day after that. You can go down to engineering and get an oil bath or work on optimizations, or whatever you’d like to do. If anyone asks I told you to do it.”

“Of course mistress, thank you,” the droid replied, clipping her bag to a snap on his back. “I’ll make sure a service droid comes by to collect the rest of your possessions.” He headed off down the walkway towards the hangar. 

The battered old troop transport that Poe and Finn were flying touched down on the landing pad next to theirs, and the two women walked over to meet it. As soon as he came down the ramp Poe gathered his two friends up in a vigorous hug. Finn shook his head but was still grinning as he came up behind his boyfriend. BB-8 rolled along behind his master as usual. 

“Alright, down to business,” Poe said, stepping back and pulling out his comm. “This is Poe Dameron, are you receiving me?”

“This is Cephalon Terrine, I sure am!” the computer sounded positively delighted to be speaking to him. “We are in a stable lunar-synchronous orbit around the fourth moon, taking in the lovely view of this fiery gas giant! Operators Azer and Skel are ready to deploy once we have permission to enter your airspace.”

Poe sent the computer the codes it needed, and after several minutes Rey recognized the two Tenno landing craft as they appeared above the trees. Neither ship actually landed: both warframes simply leaped down to land in the grass nearby. As soon as their feet touched the ground, the craft took off again, vanishing behind their cloaking technology. 

As the Tenno approached, Rey noted that both of them were using different frames than the ones they’d had before. Azer’s was mostly human shaped except for its head, which had a circular decoration on the face plate and a short, stubby horn. Skel’s frame had a short horn on its forehead as well, and some kind of trailing tendrils hanging down from its head and its high shoulder flanges. Somehow both of these frames looked less intimidating and more regal than the ones they’d been using before: they didn’t even have claws. Both had striking coloration: Azer was gold and black, and Skel was black and violet with silver filigree. They both looked like dignitaries from some alien civilization, which she supposed was technically what they were.

Poe frowned, looking at the two Tenno and then back down at Rey. “These are the same people from before right?” he said quietly. “They look really different.”

“They both have several different warframes. They use the force to switch between them,” Rey explained. “It’s basically like...changing into dress uniforms, I guess.”

Rose frowned. “That’s weird. Is Azer the man and Skel the woman?”

Rey nodded. “You can tell by looking at the color of the status lights scattered across their frames: Azer’s are always gold and Skel’s are always purple.” Poe gave her a questioning look and she shrugged, “I...asked Azer a lot of questions while we had nothing to do in hyperspace. That was one of the things he told me.”

As both Tenno came up to the platform, Poe stepped forward to meet them, and Rey sensed him putting on his ‘General of the Resistance’ personality. 

“Welcome,” he said, holding out his hand. As usual Skel took the lead, stepping forward and bowing as she took Poe’s hand. As he moved to shake the other warframe’s hand, Rey’s comm pinged and she switched it on.

“Hello there, Rey,” Terrine said. “Operator Azer can’t speak fluent Basic yet, but if you keep this comm active, I can continue to provide a translation for him. I suspect there may be a few more people who he and Operator Skel need to communicate with today.”

_Terrine is very clever with this sort of thing_ , Azer said, walking over to stand next to her. _She’s hooked Xebu in as well so Skel can also talk._

“I hadn’t thought of that but, it’s a good idea,” Finn said. “It’ll put people at ease if they can hear your voice, even if it is awfully distorted by the translator.” After a moment Rey’s comm clicked, and instead of just being in her head, Azer’s distorted voice came across the comm.

“We’re pleased to be welcomed,” he said, facing Poe. 

“Well, you did help rescue me,” Poe said, letting go of his formal bearing as he wrapped one arm around Finn’s waist and started towards the docking bay. “And anyway, any friend of Rey and Finn’s is a friend of mine.”

\-----------------------------------------------

After they passed through the hangar where smaller ships were apparently kept, the entire entourage entered a control area that was filled with displays and computer consoles. Azer studied those that were close enough for him to read, but he still couldn’t really make sense of the written form of Basic. 

Everyone looked up when Poe entered but he waved off any attempt at formality. He walked over to a woman who was standing at a conference table in the middle of the room, under a large holographic map of the galaxy. 

“Welcome back, everyone,” the woman said, looking up from the display she had been studying. “I didn’t realize you were planning to rendezvous with General Finn and Rey when you left on your mission, General Dameron.” General? Interesting. Rey had told him that Poe was the leader of this...whatever it was, but he hadn’t realized they had formal titles. Although if that was the case, why didn’t Rey have one?

“Well…,” Poe looked to the side, “It wasn’t exactly part of the original plan.”

The woman looked up at Skel and Azer with some confusion, although Azer was a little surprised not to sense any fear. “And some new...recruits?” she said cautiously, looking at Finn and Rey. 

“They're more like guests,” Rey said, shrugging. “This is Azer and Skel. We discovered them in the Unknown Regions.” 

Skel bowed and Azer tipped his head politely. “We are pleased to meet you,” Skel said, speaking through Rey’s comm.

“Oh o..okay” Kaydel said, looking between them, then back to Rey. “I thought you were looking for Jedi artifacts.”

“It’s a long story,” Rey said.

“They helped us out a lot, actually,” Poe added, “also, we were able to pick up some more deserting stormtroopers while we were on Nar Uttana.”

Kaydel grinned at that. “Excellent. How would you like to handle their debrief?”

As the conversation turned to their plans for the deserters, Azer looked up and studied the star map projected above the table. There were hundreds of star systems marked: it was amazing how much exploration had occurred while they were asleep. 

He turned his faceplate towards Rey. _This map is impressive but I can’t quite read the text legends yet,_ he said silently. _Where is the Origin System?_

_Origin system? Isn’t that where you and Skel are originally from?_ she said, turning away from the discussion. _I guess it would be somewhere even further out from where we found you._

_It’s...uh...I suppose it is?_ he said, looking back at the map. Did Rey really not know?

_What about the planet called Earth?_ Skel asked, leaning in to examine the chart as well. 

_I don’t think I’ve heard of a planet named Earth_ , Rey said. _The world we found you both on is in an area that’s generally considered unexplored._ She pointed at a hazy white line that cut through the star map. _We know the positions of stars outside this area, but it’s so far out from the core of civilization that no one has been there yet._

_In that case, where is Irkalla, the planet where you found us, on this map?_ Skel said.

Rey leaned over and pointed to a star that was just across the white line denoting the “unknown regions.” Skel leaned in as well, raising one hand to trace the spiral arm down. She pointed to a spot further out along the arm. 

_This is approximately where it would be, I believe,_ she said, and then turned her head towards Azer, focusing her void communication only on him so Rey couldn’t hear. _Right on the line that we drew up for the agreement, remember?_

He did remember, now that Skel reminded him. He looked at the area of space she had pointed out, and then the white line marking the “unexplored” regions. Ah. He understood now. 

_What could have caused them to move so far away, though?_ he wondered, speaking privately as well _. Leaving the system wasn’t part of the treaty._

Unaware of their conversation, Rey adjusted the map to zoom in on the area Skel had pointed out. _Force, that’s far away,_ she said. _If you decide to awaken the other Tenno, will you try to return?_

_Unlikely,_ Skel said. Rey looked a little surprised by her immediate response.

_We are originally from Earth, but that was a very long time ago,_ Azer tried to explain. _Circumstances have brought us here, so here is where we will stay for now._

Meanwhile the conversation at the conference table was wrapping up. “So Finn and Kaydel, you’ll take care of debriefing the troopers: see what they want to do and let Intel start their checkup,” Poe said, and Finn nodded. “Meanwhile, Rose, let’s go take a look at the data that we got from Ooltha.”

Rose nodded, grinning. “There’s some juicy stuff in there.” 

“And you, Rey...what’s this?” he asked, glancing at the section of the star chart they were looking at.

“This is apparently the sector of space that Azer and Skel’s people, the Tenno, originally come from,” Rey said. 

Poe’s eyes widened and he looked back at the two Tenno. “That’s...really far out in the unknown regions.”

Skel shrugged and spoke through the comm again. “It was a very long time ago, possibly as much as ten thousand years. We don’t know if it’s even still inhabited.”

Kaydel’s eyes widened. “Ten thousand years?”

Finn nodded. “They were both in deep stasis when we found them. We don’t really know exactly how old they are, but that’s our best guess at the moment, based on their language.”

“Force,” the other woman said. “It’s too bad Beaumont went back to the core to work for the New-New Republic. He wouldn’t have been able to stop asking them questions for at least a week.”

“Anyway,” Poe said, “Rey, since our new friends are force-sensitives, I assume you want to take them to see the temple.” Azer noticed that several people working nearby paused and gave Skel and himself a second look when Poe mentioned ‘the force’. He must have said it intentionally so that his people would know. Interesting. 

“That’s right,” Rey said. “If it’s alright with you.”

“No no, feel free,” he said. “That old pyramid is quite a place. Will we see you at the evening meal?”  
  
“Sure, I’ll see you then.” she said, turning to Finn. “Good luck, let me know what you learn from the troopers.” 

“Hopefully they have some more information on their commander,” he grinned and gave her shoulder a squeeze. “I’ll fill you in at dinner.”

\-----------------------------

Rey led the two Tenno through the base, showing them a few notable areas on the way. Honestly it was as much a tour for her as it was them: when she’d left four months ago things had been in a much rougher state. She was particularly impressed with the progress in the engineering bay, but she didn’t think that Azer or Skel had any idea what they were looking at as they walked past workbenches and partially disassembled engine components. She also stopped briefly at her quarters to check her bags and change clothes. Skel and Azer were both strangely awkward when she invited them in and both wound up waiting outside. She filed it away as yet another Tenno social taboo.

After leaving the base proper, she brought them down through the civilian settlement that had sprung up adjacent to the base over the last several months. Just like the base itself, the settlement had grown significantly since the last time she’d been here. Where there had been rows of uniform ferrocrete shelters, there were now all sorts of differently arranged dwellings, and people from all over the galaxy walking among them. There was even a small market area now with a few stalls set up, interspersed with newer arrivals who had laid out mats to show off items they were selling.

_Who are all of these people?_ Skel asked, peering curiously at a display of mineral samples an Ugnaught was trying to sell. _Do they work on the base?_

_Some of them,_ Rey said, surreptitiously glancing around at the locals wandering past, but nobody seemed to have recognized her yet. She stretched out with the force, subtly redirecting the attention of anyone who might look their way. _There’s also extended families, refugees, and other people who don’t have anywhere else to go. Poe usually welcomes anyone who comes to him and needs help, tries to find something for them to do._

_So everyone here was displaced in some way?_ Azer said, looking between the various humans and other species walking past. 

_Yes,_ Rey said, looking sadly at a Twi'lek woman who was selling strings of beads. She had a baby in a sling on her shoulder and another small child was sleeping on a mat next to her. She had a deep, blackened scar on one side of her face and was wearing a bandage over her eye. _Things have been rough for the last few years._

Soon enough they reached the path that lead into the forest, and they were alone with the trees. Rey breathed in the dense humid air and felt herself relaxing. She led the way down the remains of the path she had cleared months earlier, and eventually they came out from under the jungle canopy. The huge stone pyramid towered over them, taller than the highest trees. 

_Remarkable,_ Azer said, looking up, and Skel nodded in agreement. _This wasn’t built by the Resistance, I take it?_

_No, a historian who used to work with us thought that it must be thousands of years old,_ Rey said, starting up the first step. _Come, I’ll show you the inside._

\-------------------

The first two levels were still filled with the remains of the old Rebel base, covered in dust and partially overgrown by moss and ferns. There was a strong unpleasant moldy smell, and Rey had to step over a smashed viewscreen with some kind of fungus growing up through it to get to the blast door that lead into the untouched parts of the temple. She didn’t know if any of the equipment down here was actually salvageable, or if it would all need to be scrapped.

She led them up through the partially collapsed staircase, all three of them using the force to clear sections of broken stairs. The higher levels had never been used by the Rebels, but there were the remains of statues and wall carvings that the original builders had left behind. It was obvious that at one time, it had been lavishly decorated.

_Who built this temple?_ Skel asked as they walked through a massive open hall, poking at part of a broken statue with her foot. It looked like the head of some kind of predator, heavily stylized.

_I don’t know,_ Rey said. _Poe might, he used to live near here when he was a boy._ She smiled, thinking of a young Poe Dameron climbing up precarious staircases and poking around the broken down electronics left behind by the rebellion. _Various resistance and rebel groups who opposed the Empire have used this moon for a long time. I think it was abandoned before that, maybe for hundreds of years._

_Are there other signs of its original builders on this moon?_ Azer asked, running one hand over some markings on a pillar that could have once been writing, but had been eroded by time and a thick coating of moss. 

_I’ve heard that there are at least three other similar temples, but I haven’t had a chance to explore them yet,_ Rey said. _Whoever they were, they vanished long ago._

As they moved to the higher floors, the ceilings became lower and there were a larger number of interior rooms. Any furniture that might have originally been present had long ago rotted away, leaving only the occasional broken bit of stone or metal, or the remains of broken pottery. Honestly the whole place was just full of scavengable items, but since Poe had basically given her free reign to do what she wanted with it, she felt like the entire temple was her salvage in a way. Better to keep it all in one place for now.

_I’m not sure what these rooms were originally used for, but I’ve been thinking that they could be turned into living space for anyone who wants to come here,_ she explained. _It would take some work but, I think it would be worth it in the end._

_You could house a reasonable number of people up here,_ Skel said. _That is your goal, to bring other people with the power of the void to live here?_

_Basically,_ Rey said. _I don’t know...exactly how it worked for you, but for people who are born with force abilities, they manifest at random, and people don’t always know how to control them. Sometimes their parents can’t deal with it and they have to leave home, or they run away._ She looked down, thinking of a particular force user who she would never see again. _So I want them to be able to come here and have a place where they can feel safe._

_We had a great deal of trouble controlling our void abilities as well,_ Azer said. _It wasn’t for nothing that the Orokin called us demons. This temple has a certain tranquility about it that would be calming._

Skel nodded. _Will this new group you are planning to form be part of the military installation that Dameron has established?_

Rey winced at the question. It was one of many things she had been trying not to think about for months. _I don’t want that, the Jedi shouldn't be a military force, and I think Poe realizes that. But I’m not sure that he...completely understands._ She sighed, trying to think how to explain. _Poe sees the world differently than I do, and not just because he isn’t force-sensitive. The resistance took me in and made me part of their family, and I’ll always be grateful for that. But for Poe, it’s_ **_always_ ** _been his family. A new colony of Jedi would not be part of that family. I have felt, though the force, that it’s important for us to be free of any government or other group that might try to control us, even if my friends are it’s leaders._ She shrugged unhappily. _If I ever have to tell him that I can’t work with him anymore, I don’t know how he’ll take it._

_Political relationships are always complex, especially when they conflict with personal ones,_ Azer said, then closed off his communication so only Rey could hear. _Honestly, I find them very difficult. Skel is much better at that sort of thing than I am. But...Poe is your friend and Finn’s partner: perhaps he will be more reasonable than you fear._

_I hope you’re right,_ she said. 

Eventually, Rey found the shaft that lead up to the roof. It didn’t have any steps but that wasn’t a problem for her or the Tenno. They both beat her to the top, and by the time she caught up to them she was a little out of breath. Azer and Skel stood on the ledge that wrapped around the edge of the pyramid's apex, looking like two ancient temple guardians carved from metal and stone. She climbed up to join them, although she wasn’t quite bold enough to stay standing. 

_This is an excellent location for us to use as a drop point for our landing craft,_ Skel said, turning to look back towards the settlement. It was mostly invisible beyond the tall trees.

_Yes, it’s secluded and has a wide flat surface,_ Azer said, kneeling down on the wall next to Rey and tucking his feet under his legs to sit. _Also, we’d have no real risk of interfering with traffic coming and going from the pads or the hanger. Would that be acceptable, Rey?_

_Your landing craft are invisible so I don’t think anyone would even know what you were doing,_ she said. _But no, I doubt anyone would mind. Poe’s sort of put me in charge of this whole...project,_ she gestured to encompass the entire pyramid, _so I think it’s fine._

Skel nodded, walking along the ledge to inspect the rest of the roof. _I’m going to investigate the exterior a bit,_ she said _, I’ll be back._ So saying, she climbed over the ledge and began making her way down the temple wall. By this point Rey wasn’t that surprised to see a Tenno climb down a sheer surface. She watched her until the warframe disappeared through a narrow window, then looked up at Azer. 

Now that they were alone, she felt a little frisson of tension move through her. Rey hadn’t realized it until he'd appeared from his landing craft earlier, but she’d been looking forward to spending time with him in person, even if it was just via his warframe. 

_So you like the temple?_ she said. _I thought you might._

_I can only imagine what it must have looked like when it was new,_ Azer said, _and what could be done to restore it. Really, this moon reminds me a great deal of Earth. There were ruins like this there as well, built unknown millennia before even the Orokin Empire._

_Was there a previous, lost civilization on your home planet?_ Rey asked. Azer had mentioned that the system he came from was densely inhabited but he hadn’t said much about its history. _I know many planets were inhabited by many different species over the centuries._

The Tenno looked at her for a long moment, and Rey sensed that he was choosing what he should say. 

_Rey,_ he finally said, _you and Poe and Finn, and the other humans here, you’ve told me that you’re all from different planets. And yet, clearly, you are all the same species._

_Of course_ , Rey said. _Humans come from many places_. 

Azer nodded. _And you know that we were also human, before we became Tenno._

_Yes?_ she wasn't sure where he was going with this.

_Our home planet, Earth, had been home to humans for more than 200 thousand years: before they knew how to write, much less travel through space,_ he said. _So there were many ‘lost’ civilizations, but they had all been built by humans as they grew from non-sapient scavengers into a civilized society, and eventually a planet-spanning empire._

Rey stared at him, the implications of his words becoming clear to her. _Your home planet is where humans originally came from? That’s why it’s called the Origin system, isn’t it?_

He nodded. It seemed impossible, but she could tell that he believed it. _If that’s true,_ she said, _then why is it so far out in the unknown regions?_ She'd heard that there had been legends about the “lost homeworld” forever, but most people thought it must be one of the core worlds that had been inhabited for thousands of years, or maybe even a planet that had been destroyed. 

Azer shrugged. _I don’t know why your ancestors chose to travel so far. When we entered the dream only a fairly small area of the galaxy had been explored. We traveled a very long way to reach somewhere remote to sleep undisturbed. Perhaps the people of that time thought it would be easier to live closer to the galactic core, where stars and planets are closer together._

She could sense that he had some suspicion about what had happened that he wasn’t telling her, but she let it go for the moment. She stared off across the trees again, and thought about how peaceful and silent it was under the canopy. Was that why she felt so at home here, because it was similar to the place where humans had originally come from?

_Was Earth covered in trees like this?_ She asked, trying to picture it in her mind.

_Some parts of it,_ he said. _But not all. There were deserts, mountains, oceans. Even by my time, it was just one of many planets that humans lived on, but even so, it was the only one where life thrived. I can only imagine what it must have been like at the very beginning, everyone living together and knowing just one world._

He fell silent, but Rey could sense that his thoughts were similar to her own: trying to imagine what it would have been like to live in that far distant past. A peaceful silence fell between them, and she realized that she felt more relaxed than she had for a long time. Yavin’s star was slowly making its way towards the horizon, it’s light just beginning to turn gold, and the cool breeze above the treetops was a pleasant relief from the jungle’s heat. Azer was a calm, quiet presence at her side. Without the need to shield against the press of other minds around her (a constant issue back on the base) Rey could let go of her focus and feel the living force surrounding them. 

It was a perfect time for meditating. She blinked, and looked over at Azer.

_Is meditation something that you know?_ she asked. He turned his head to look down at her, and she sensed that her question had caught him a bit off guard. 

_It is,_ he said. _It helps us project into our warframes and stay in control of ourselves. But...I sense that what I’m thinking of might be different from what you’re thinking of._

She thought about that for a moment, and then an idea struck her. _Okay_ , she said, scooting closer and sitting with her legs crossed. _Let’s try meditating together: you show me what you would normally do, and then I can show you what I do differently._ _You can follow along with me, I’ve guided Finn through it a few times before._

He turned to face her, moving out of his kneeling position to sit cross-legged, and tilted his head to the side in curiosity. _Alright. How does this work?_

_Here, hold out your hands like this,_ she said, directing him to sit with his frame’s hands resting palm up in front of him. 

_Now_ , she said, _we can go into the trance together._ She reached out and lightly rested her hands over his, and at the same time reached out to him with the force, opening the connection they were using to communicate wider. She wasn’t aware of his thoughts or anything private, but she could sense his presence in the force more strongly, as well as his general mind state. He could sense the same of her, and she could see that he was intrigued, taking a moment to acclimate himself to the sensation. 

_You’re not used to connecting like this, even though you can use the force to talk?_ Rey said, surprised.

_Our training was never focused on anything besides connecting with a warframe,_ he said. _We learned we could sense and talk to each other mostly by accident._

She felt that they were skirting close to some bitter memories for him, talking about his training, so she didn’t ask any more questions. _Why don’t you start, I’ll follow your lead if I can,_ she said.

He nodded, and focused his mind. Just like the first time she had tried to connect to him, she perceived him as an ethereal presence that was tethered to the warframe, but was clearly a separate being. Now that she was paying close attention, though, she could sense that it was more complicated. The being that was Azer filled the warframe with his luminous energy, but at its edges, he bled into something else that was not part of him: the warframe itself had its own presence in the force. As he continued to focus, she could sense the distinction between the two begin to melt away, intertwining until it was almost impossible to detect that they weren’t a single being. This merging was accompanied by a deep sense of peace and completeness that she felt did not originate from Azer. 

_You don’t just control the warframe_ , she said in amazement. _You **become** it. _

_Yes, exactly_ , he said, and she could tell that he was pleased. _Warframes don’t have minds the way you or I do, but they do have...an instinctive substrate that seeks a void-touched soul to unite with. This frame, Excalibur, has been with me for a very long time, so we are very comfortable together._

_Amazing,_ Rey said. She felt his acknowledgement, and then he turned his focus inward again. It was strange that he was able to merge his mind into his warframes’ so completely that he could give up his individual existence to them, but was mystified by the concept of connecting to other people. The more she learned about Tenno the more solitary and isolated their lives seemed to be. 

After he had regained his focus, she thought that he would reach outside of himself to connect with the force, but instead he continued to focus inwards, on a point inside of himself that was just above where a person’s heart would be, that seemed to pulse with energy. As his awareness sunk down towards it, like a star collapsing in on itself the flow of his power seemed to intensify. As it did, she sensed his presence in the force undergo a strange shift. She could only describe it as something like waves in the sea flattening out and becoming calm at low tide. She let herself sink down with him, and felt the same strange calm fill her. It wasn’t the light or darkness she was feeling, but a curious mixture of the two. It wasn’t like anything she’d felt before. She could still sense Azer as a bright presence in front of her, but there was something else that seemed to loom behind him like a shadow, just out of sight. As soon as she tried to focus on it, it slipped away from her perception. 

After spending a long moment simply existing in this tranquil, balanced state, Rey let go of the connection between them, coming back to herself. She opened her eyes and breathed out slowly. She felt strangely refreshed, as though some equilibrium inside of herself that had been misaligned for years had finally been restored. She could hardly believe it, but there it was: the reason Azer didn’t feel dark or light was because he was perfectly balanced between the two.

She sensed him come back up to the surface of his mind, and he tilted his head down at her. _So what do you think?_

_You were right,_ she said, _meditation definitely means something different to you than it does to me. I’ve never thought of my presence in the force as emanating from a single point like you do._

_That is what we call our void core,_ Azer said, resting his hand over the spot where his heart would be if he wasn’t in a warframe. _When we use our power that is where we draw it up from. I suppose I always assumed it was where I was connected to the void._

_Hmm,_ she said, _you have such a different way of thinking about the force. I never knew there was a way you could balance between light and darkness the way you can. In fact it’s...something that I thought might be impossible._

_That knowledge was lost?_ He seemed puzzled and maybe even a little concerned. _Well...not all Tenno believed that balance was the correct path. There were others who felt that it was better to choose a side to fall to, but I never agreed with that philosophy._

_The Jedi have always followed the light, to the exclusion of all darkness, she said. And I mean, there are others who follow darkness and they’ve caused a lot of destruction. But I always wondered...if there was a way to end the conflict between the two, some way to balance them. Watching you do it so easily gives me hope that I can do it too._

His warframe’s faceplate held no expression, but she could sense the intense look he was giving her from beyond it. He turned his hands so that he was holding hers instead of just letting her palms rest over his, and she felt her heart beat a little faster. _I’m sure you can, Rey. I think that your concept of light and darkness is different from my own, but you’re welcome to join me in my void meditation whenever you wish if you want to balance yourself._

_I’d like that,_ she said, smiling. He nodded, and she felt that he was still looking at her intently.

\-----------------

It took him a moment to realize that he was staring at her. He let go of her hands and looked off towards the setting sun, feeling awkward all of a sudden. _So. Jedi meditation. I take it that you do things somewhat differently than we do._

_Ah, right,_ she said, shifting position slightly. _One of my teachers, Leia, taught me how to guide someone through it. Here, I’ll show you._

As before, he could feel her reach out with her void energy, connecting with his to link their minds together. It was a strange sensation, but not a bad one. She started out on familiar ground to him, focusing her mind and entering a calm, tranquil state. He focused as well, and fell into the trance with her fairly easily. He was curious to see what she was going to do next: Rey didn’t have a void core to sink down into. Instead of looking inward, though, she seemed to unfold herself, letting her void energy expand outwards to mingle with the ambient energy around her. She pulled him along with her, and he was overcome by the new sensation. 

It was as though his mind was connected not just to his warframe, but to everything around him. He could sense Rey sitting in front of him, her powerful void energy flowing out and pulsing around her like the corona of a star. He could sense the vines and roots growing through the stones under his feet, he could feel the trees below them and the living things moving through them. He could even sense Skel poking around the temple far below, but, remarkably, he could perceive how she was different from the other living things, that she wasn’t as...present, somehow. This must have been how Rey had known that his warframe wasn’t his real body. He spent several minutes just taking it all in. 

_This is incredible,_ he said, feeling everything at once as it all seemed to flow into him. _I never could have imagined that all of this was within my perception just beyond the steel skin of my warframe._

_I felt something similar the first time I learned to connect to the living force,_ Rey said. _It’s not something I’ll ever forget. All of a Jedi’s skills are based on this: we reach out to the force in order to influence the world around us, whether it’s to connect with other people, see distant places, or interact with physical forces._

She waited, giving him a chance to get used to all of the sensations he was experiencing, then she began immersing herself deeper in the flow. Instead of just reaching out into the energy around her, she let it flow back into her. _Once you can feel the force around you, the next step is to feel it flowing through you, merge with it, and let yourself become one with the force,_ Rey explained, as she let herself fall into the flow.

He tried to follow her lead, but as he sunk down, he could feel something wasn’t right. It was too much: as his void energy began to intermingle with everything beyond himself, the boundary of his own existence began to melt away. In an endless moment, he saw through a thousand eyes and moved through a thousand bodies that he was and was not at the same time. He felt his consciousness spreading thin and tearing apart, the filaments of the void reaching down from beyond reality for him. If he’d had a mouth that he knew was his own, he might have screamed.

Rey was calling out to him from somewhere far away, but he didn’t have enough awareness left to understand what she was saying. He could still sense her presence reaching out, though, and he focused on her, using that bright point as an anchor to pull himself back together, moving through her as she helped him to pull his awareness back into just his warframe. Even staying connected to Excalibur was too much, though, and he let himself fall all the way down into his true body, focusing desperately on his core and gathering himself around it, forcing all of his energy down beneath the surface of his physical body. 

After what seemed like several minutes he felt himself stabilizing, the pulsing energy from his void core filling him, but not overflowing. He let out a long breath and opened his eyes, staring into the darkness inside his somatic link. Gradually he became aware of Rey trying to find him. He wasn’t sure he could reach back at the moment, so he just didn’t stop her from reaching in and suddenly they were connected again.

_Azer!_ She said, _are you...are you alright? Your warframe just slumped over, and..._

_I’m alright,_ he said, leaning his head back and closing his eyes against the oppressive darkness inside the link. _I lost the connection to my warframe, but I’m back on my ship in my true body._

_Thank the Force,_ Rey said, and he felt the wave of her relief and guilt wash over him. _I’m so sorry, I had no idea that something like this could even happen. I didn’t think that someone could fall too far and get lost in it like that._

_It isn't your fault_ , he said, trying to remember anything but hazy details of the last several minutes. _I think it’s...well, you saw how I merge myself with my frame. I think trying to stretch my mind out and immerse myself in the flow, as you were doing, somehow my mind tried to merge with...everything. Clearly, it was too much._

_That’s why you had to leave your warframe?_ she said, sounding a little more calm. _Can you still connect to it, or does it have to go back to your ship first?_

_No, I can still connect._ He let himself fall back into the somatic link, focusing on finding Excalibur. After a moment he could see the sky of Yavin IV again, and Rey leaning over him with a worried expression. He felt a pang of guilt for frightening her. She wasn’t used to dealing with Tenno and their strangeness yet.

_I’m sorry,_ he said, sitting up and rubbing his head. _I didn’t mean to frighten you. I just needed to pull myself back together, and that included disconnecting from Excalibur._

_Are you sure you’re okay?_ she said, obviously still shaken _._

_I'm sure, don't worry,_ he said. _I’ll just have to be more cautious in the future. I’ve never tried to consciously reach out using my void energy like that: I had no idea it was possible. I suppose it’s true that the void connects to everywhere._ He composed himself into his usual kneeling position again and spent a moment refocusing his mind. Rey sat down facing him again, and he could feel her reaching out with her own void energy, trying to sense if he was really back to normal. After a moment she seemed satisfied.

_I guess I’ll have to be more careful too._ She sighed, leaning her head on one hand. _I try to act like I know what I’m doing, but there’s still so much I don’t understand about the Force. Every time I think I’m getting it, something happens to show me that I really don’t know anything._

_Any person who thinks they know everything is just lying to themself,_ he said. _It was intense, but it wasn’t completely a bad experience. And we have learned more about each other._

_You’re right,_ she said, looking up at him. _We did learn a lot, and I feel like we understand each other a bit better now._ She smiled, and the light from Yavin’s star caught in her dark eyes, turning them a rich reddish brown. His mind seemed to go blank for a moment and he forgot anything else he had been planning to say. 

Skel chose that exact moment to climb up over the ledge, carrying a musty looking pack filled with small rocks, bits of plant matter, and broken parts of electronics. 

_I found a few interesting things, I’m going to have Xebu analyze them to_..., she stopped and looked between them. ... _have you two just been sitting here like this the whole time I was gone?_

_We were...talking...about void abilities,_ Azer said. He got up, brushing some dust from his frame’s shoulder that must have been from when he unexpectedly disconnected from it. _But I suppose now that you’re back, we should consider returning._

_It is getting late,_ Rey said, also getting up. _I should get back, I don’t want to miss the evening meal._ She looked between them. _Do you want to come, or?_

Azer sensed her shy hopefulness that perhaps they would come back with her, but before he could say anything, Skel answered for both of them. 

_Warframes don’t require that sort of nourishment,_ she said. _I appreciate General Dameron’s offer of hospitality, Rey, but it’s not the sort of place that we would fit in. Besides, Azer and myself need to recall our frames and see to our own needs._

_I suppose we do_ , he said, feeling a bit of regret. Skel was right though. Rey might feel comfortable around them because she could sense their affinity, but a boisterous military mess hall wasn’t the place where Tenno belonged. _Rey, please let Poe Dameron know that if he has questions or if he’d like to request something of us, he can contact Terrine or Xebu and they will connect us._ He continued speaking privately only to her. _Have a good evening, and say hello to Finn._

She smiled and nodded. _Alright. I’m sure Poe will have more questions: he’ll probably ask you to come back down tomorrow to talk. Good night!_ She started over towards the opening back down into the temple, gathering her power to jump down the side of the shaft. 

He watched where she had gone for a moment, then turned to find Skel leaning against the ledge with her arms crossed. Her faceplate had no expression but he knew very well what kind of look she would be giving him if she could.

_What?_ he said, feeling even more awkward than before. 

She just stared at him for a long moment, though, and then shook her head. 

\--------------------

Halfway across the Galaxy, Lt. Lefev stood before two enormous stone doors, and contemplated whether this would be the last thing she would ever see.

Normally she would never have been sent on a mission like this, but General Bisset felt this away mission was too important to trust anyone else with. Not that she didn’t relish the chance to distinguish herself, but she couldn’t help but feel a little bitter, thinking of him safe and sound back on the _Indomitable_ , hanging well above this Sith-forsaken planet.

Sith-forsaken was probably close to the truth. After an extended series of hyperspace jumps, they had arrived at the remote world known as Miskalla V. General Bisset believed there was a special weapon housed here that would give them an advantage over force-using enemies, and ordered Lefev to personally overseen its recovery. They’d landed their troop transport on the planet’s red, blasted surface, following a beacon that Bisset had given her. Something from his days working for Imperial Intelligence, she supposed. It had led them to the ruins of a compound made of black stone that could have come straight out of a propaganda holovid from the height of the Empire. She didn’t recognize the stark red lettering that was still visible in places, but it definitely didn’t make the ruin feel less ominous. 

After digging through the rubble strewn across the black stone tiles someone had found a set of stairs leading down to this basement level, and now here they were. 

She looked over at her astromech droid, and pointed at the access port on the wall nearby. “Get on it.”

“What do you think is on the other side, Ma'am?” one of her troopers asked. Lefev didn’t hold with Bisset’s practice of forcing troopers to remain silent at all times in the presence of a commanding officer. She wanted her people to be able to ask her questions and be aware of what was going on. Not that she would ever say this in the General’s hearing, of course.

“I honestly don’t know, commander,” she said, pulling out her blaster rifle and moving to one side as a deep, resonating chime sounded, signaling that the droid had been successful. Bisset had given them a security code that he thought would work. It was mildly comforting to know that the code had been effective and the security system hadn’t blown the droid up.

The stone doors slid slowly back into the walls, but all they revealed was a single turbolift. There was no port for a droid next to the gleaming black door, just a keypad. She frowned: Bisset hadn’t mentioned this and she didn’t have a numeric code for this kind of security lock.

“VX-5167,” she said, and one of her troopers walked forward.

“Do you think you can guess the code?” Lefev asked quietly.

“I’ll try, Ma’am,” the young woman said. VX-5167 was one of Lefev’s personal guard, and had been with her since before General Bisset had come along. She was also Lefev’s biggest secret: some people were lucky, but no one was as lucky as VX-5167. There was something special about her, and Lefev made sure to keep that fact to herself. 

VX frowned down at the keypad for a long moment, then slowly typed in 4 numbers on the pad. Lefev waited, her heart in her throat. If they had guessed wrong, the whole place might be rigged to explode. The trooper’s luck held true, though: the status light above the panel turned green and after a few seconds the lift door cycled open. 

Lefev, VX, and three other troopers managed to squeeze inside. She signaled the rest to stay back. “I don’t know if we can send the lift back up,” she said, “so stay on guard here. If we don’t return in an hour’s time…inform the General and abide by his decision.”

Her troopers acknowledged with a salute, and the lift door cycled closed. 

\------------

The turbolift opened on what had obviously once been some kind of lab, but Lefev couldn’t say what the subject of their research might have been. There were several computer consoles arranged roughly in a ring around a transparisteel barrier that sealed off a larger room. Or at least, it had once sealed off the inner room. Now, the transparisteel was twisted and broken, pierced through with numerous strange crystalline tendrils that pulsed with a strange pale light. 

After searching through the control room, one of the troopers found a security door that had been broken open, and the four stormtroopers advanced deeper into the lab.

“Lieutenant, permission to speak freely,” VX said over the comm as her squad fanned out through the chamber. Lefev sat down at one of the consoles and directed the astromech droid to try to get the power running. 

“Permission granted, VX-5167,” she replied, typing in the command code that Bisset had given her as the console booted up. 

“There's something...wrong about this place, Sir.” VX said. "It gives me a really bad feeling."

Lefev watched as the trooper approached the center of the room. There was some kind of cylinder there, wrapped up in the strange crystalline structures that had broken through the walls. It was so clouded with dust or age that it was impossible to see inside. 

“What kind of a feeling…,” Lefev began, but was interrupted by the alarm that suddenly started blaring from the console she was using. Something about “contamination” and “containment breach” was scrolling across the HUD. “What is this, turn this alarm off, 9-75-E!” Lefev shouted at her astromech as the droid screeched in protest. 

“Lieutenant, look!” VX shouted into the comm, and Lefev looked up to see the crystalline vines had suddenly come to life, twisting and writhing through the room. She jumped back as one of her men was slammed into the transparisteel panel in front of her, leaving a smear of red across the transparent surface as he slid to the floor. 

“Get out of there now!” Lefev said, trying to find some kind of lock down codes on the console. 9-75-E seemed to get its droid head together and started cycling through commands. Lefev looked up as there was a loud grating sound from the center of the room. The crystal vines had unwrapped from the cylinder, and its milky surface had split open down the center. 

An emaciated figure was revealed within as a flood of some kind of suspension fluid poured out across the black tile floor. Lefev shouted at VX to run again, but the trooper seemed to be frozen in place. Cursing, she shouldered her blaster rifle and pushed through the broken security door into the room. 

She felt like she’d walked through a magnetic seal into a hard vacuum. There was some kind of horrible pressure in the room and she felt her limbs caught as soon as it surrounded her. The two troopers who hadn’t been knocked senseless by the strange crystalline tendrils seemed to be trapped in it as well.

Slowly, the creature inside the tube lifted its hands to its head. There was a wet, squelching sound as it pulled some kind of mask or restraint away from its face.

Two reddish yellow eyes regarded Lefev and her troopers as a Rancor would survey its latest meal. The face they were set in was desiccated and withered, but Lefev saw that there was no weakness in it: this being was like orowood that had been dried and compressed until it was as strong as steel. It pulled itself up part way out of the harness it had been resting in, and focused its vicious Sith eyes on Lefev.

“I can see…,” it began, in a voice like crushed rocks, “that you are the officer...here. So,” it folded its gaunt limbs and leaned forward. “Who sent you to find me?”

Lefev stared for a moment, and the...person? frowned impatiently. She swallowed and managed to find her voice. “G..General Arielus Bisset sent us...to retrieve you.”

They raised one withered eyebrow. “...interesting.”

The pressure in the room seemed to ease off a bit, and Lefev felt her heart beating again. She could see that her troopers were also free of the being’s influence, except for VX who seemed to still be frozen in fear. 

“W...will you accompany us to meet the...the General?” Lefev said, trying to regain her control of the situation. 

The creature seemed to consider its answer for a long moment, then unfolded its limbs and leaped gracefully to the floor of the chamber. It was hard to tell if it was a man or a woman: it’s body was covered in some kind of medical wrappings and broken restraints. 

“Very well,” it said, standing to its full, skeletal height. “I will hear what Arielus has to say.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next chapter: Plans are made and guests are welcomed. 
> 
> Gray Jedi are a popular trope for Starwars fanfiction, but if you have ever played Warframe you know that Tenno can choose between three options for their morality, and one of them is literally a neutral balance between light and darkness (although none of the options in Warframe are presented as necessarily good or evil). So I don't really think I'm pushing it too far here. 
> 
> Also, the person Lefev found is not some kind of messed up Tenno. However, that doesn't mean she's just a normal Sith either.


End file.
